


She's My Parabatai

by jkalime



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments (Movies), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: AU, Clizzy - Freeform, Fanfiction, Multi, Parabatai, Shadowhunters - Freeform, clary and izzy, clary morganstern - Freeform, izzy and clary - Freeform, she was my parabatai, she's my parabatai, the mortal instruments - Freeform, tmi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2018-12-10 17:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11696193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jkalime/pseuds/jkalime
Summary: Clarissa 'Clary' Morgenstern and Isabelle 'Izzy' Lightwood are parabatai. They've grown up together, had each other's backs since forever. Then, everything changes when Clary's father, Valentine, is murdered. Clary, along with her mother and brother, come to live with her parabatai at the New York Institute. With the downworlder population on the brink of war and Valentine's murderer lurking in the shadows the girls' parabatai bond will be put to the test. Can it survive? Or will it come crumbling down like everything else in Clary's life? A Shadowhunter AU if the Circle wasn't even and if Simon wasn't in the picture (or at least the nerdy Simon we all know and love).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody and welcome to my story! This an AU Fanfiction about Clary and Izzy being parabatai and what would have happened if the Circle wasn't evil. This story is completed already and will be updated regularly (two chapters a week at least)! Thank you so much for reading and don't forget toe leave kudos and your thoughts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for checking out this story! It means a lot to me! This first chapter isn't structured very well but that's because I didn't intend to post this as a story when I started writing. The rest of the chapters are much better structured.

I was furious, and lost. The place was a maze and I didn't think I would ever find my way to my room or anywhere else for that matter.

My mother had just told me that the incompetent shadowhunters that were helping us move had somehow misplaced the majority of our belongings. How did that even happen?

I groaned as I turned another corner and ended up in a hallway I had been in five minutes ago.

"Are you lost?" An amused voice asked. Just my luck. I turned to notice a blond boy leaning in the doorway of one of the rooms.

"I'm fine," I lied and started to walk past him down the hallway.

"You've walked this hallway three times now," he kept talking as I kept walking. He grabbed my arm. "Just admit it, Clarissa, you're lost."

I pulled my arm from his grasp. "It's Clary," I told him. No one called me Clarissa, not anymore. "And I'm not lost!" Sure, I wanted to get back to my room and unpack the small amount of belongings I actually had at the moment but I wasn't desperate enough to let Jace Herondale be the one who led me there. "Even if I was I sure as hell don't need your help, Jonathan."

Jace narrowed his eyes but before he could bark back some snarky comment, a voice sounded from the end of the hall.

"Clary! There you are!" I turned to the dark haired girl making her way towards us.

"I don't appreciate you telling people how much I hate my name, Isabelle," Jace groaned, annoyed.

"Yeah, well I don't appreciate you trying to hook up with my parabatai either," Izzy retorted back.

"I was only trying to help her make sense of the institute." Jace shrugged.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Whatever, come on, Clary." I was glad when she pulled me away from the Herondale. I had only met him about three times previously, but that had been more than enough to instill a fierce hatred within me.

"Okay," Izzy started talking again as we reached my room. "Did Jace really rile you up that much? I can feel your anger pulsing through our bond."

Izzy and I were parabatai. Our relationship transcended friendship, even sisterhood. She meant more to me than anyone. We were bonded together for life.

"Jace is already an afterthought," I told her. "My mom told me that our belongings were misplaced. Everything's gone! All I have is what's with me in my backpack."

My parabatai was silent for a moment before breaking out in laughter. "Only you, Clary. This would only happen to you." I crossed my arms and glared at her. This wasn't funny. "Okay fine, I'll let you borrow some of my clothes."

"Thanks, Izzy." I didn't particularly want to wear Izzy's clothes. They weren't really my style but it was better than nothing.

"What are parabatai for?" She smiled before entering her room which was right across the hall from mine.

I turned and went into my own room. I dumped the contents of my backpack onto my bed. There were only a measly amount of belongs. My stele, drawing pad and pencils, one seraph blade, and other useless odds and ends. Then, under my drawing pad I found a picture frame.

The picture was of a happy family of four, taken not more than two months ago. I felt tears welling in my eyes and I stared at my father.

"Clary?" Izzy's voice questioned from the doorway. I hastily set the picture frame down on the bedside table and used my hand to wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Yeah?" I replied looking at her. She was holding a dress in one hand. Izzy made her way over to be and threw the dress on the bed before pulling me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Clary," she said. "I can't imagine what you're going through." She had said the same exact words to me a week ago at the funeral.

I pulled away. "I don't even know why I'm so upset. It's not like he was even around that much. He was always out training Shadowhunters. And when he was around he trained Sebastian. He never gave me the time of day."

"But he was still your father, Clary," Izzy told me. "You're allowed to be sad."

I sighed. "I've been sad for long enough." I picked up the dress she had thrown on the bed. "What's this for?"

"Magnus Bane is throwing a party; we've been invited."

"Why is he inviting us to a downworlder party?" I questioned.

"Beats me but when the High Warlock of Brooklyn gives you an invite, it's best not to question and just attend." Izzy shrugged. "But put that on, you'll look stunning."

I sighed picking up the dress and walking into the bathroom. I heard Izzy yelling something about us being parabatai and that I could get changed in front of her but I didn't care. I still liked to have my privacy.

I put the dress on and stared at myself in the mirror. Oh hell no.

"Izzy!" I shouted, barging out of the bathroom. "There is no way I can wear this!" It was very short, tight, and revealing. I didn't wear things like this.

"Sure you can! You look amazing," Izzy told me steering me to sit on the bed and she attempted to apply make up to my face.

"Izzy!"

"Fine, the natural look looks good on you anyway," Izzy told me. "Do something with your hair! Don't leave it a tangled mess! I have to go get dressed," she shouted leaving my room.

•••

Alec sighed, "Izzy what did you do to Clary?"

"What? She looks amazing, doesn't she?"

"She's your parabatai, Izzy, not your doll," the dark haired girl's brother said.

"We're going to a party Alec!" Izzy said. "We have to look our best."

"No," a firm voice said, entering the room. "You are absolutely not wearing that, Clary."

"Seriously Sebastian?" Izzy sighed. "You should be happy with how sexy she looks."

"Izzy! God, stop it! I don't want to envision my little sister like that!"

"What? I just meant maybe she'll finally get a boyfrie-"

"Izzy!" I didn't really want the entire institute knowing I've never had a boyfriend especially not-

"You've never had a boyfriend?" Jace said, walking into the room. "Poor little virgin shadowhunter."

I wanted to throttle him. But Sebastian beat me to it as he punched Jace in the face. Alec quickly stepped between them before anymore blows could be thrown. "Calm the hell down! We're already late. Let's go."

•••

"Well...here goes nothing," Alec said as he knocked on the warlock's door. It swung open revealing a man with yellow cat eyes.

"Hello! And welcome to Chairman Meow's birthday party-" he stopped himself realising who we were. "Shadowhunters. Lovely, you couldn't have looked less like a shadowhunter?" He signed and produced a bucket out of midair. "Weapons in the bucket. Can't have you killing my guests, can I?" I deposited my seraph blade inside as everyone else did the same.

"Herondale," Magnus said. "I know that's not it." Jace pulled a knife from his boot. "All you Herondales are the same." The bucket vanished. "You'll get your precious killing instruments back after the party." He stepped out of the way and ushered us inside.

"Why did you call us here, warlock?" I questioned, getting straight to the point. I wanted to go back to the Institute and get out of the dress as soon as possible. Some of the vampires were already staring at me like I was their next meal.

Magnus turned to me with curiosity. "And who might you be? I knew of the Lightwoods and the Herondale but not of you... Morgensterns." He must have noticed the family ring Sebastian was wearing. "No matter. There is a particular vampire who wishes to speak with you. His name is Simon. He's around here somewhere I'm sure." And with that the High Warlock of Brooklyn whisked away into the party.

"Split up and find the vampire," Alec ordered. He went off with his parabatai while I went off with mine. Sebastian went on his own.

"Trying to find one specific vampire here is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," I told Izzy.

"Were you looking for me?" A voice said from behind me. Izzy and I both whirled around to face a brown haired vampire. "Simon, the pleasure is mine."

"Isabelle, but my friends call me Izzy." Oh no she had that look in her eyes. "And Clary."

"Izzy, Clary," Simon let the names roll off his tongue. "We should take this to a quieter part of the party, don't you think?"

We ended up in a bedroom. There was glitter everywhere. "What did you want, vampire?" I asked shortly.

"My, no need to be so salty, Clary." Simon grinned. I could see his fangs. "But I'll get to it. I represent some very powerful vampires and they're rather angry about you shadowhunters killing off their fledglings."

"Well they must have been breaking the Accords otherwise we have no reason to harm them," Izzy told the vampire.

"But they weren't breaking the Accords that's what has my Masters so riled up," Simon informed us. "It's your trigger happy Ascended Shadowhunters. They see a downworlder, they kill said downworlder." The Ascended. That was the New York Institute's main function: training Ascended for Insitute life, or life outside of Idris.

Simon had began walking closer to us. He stopped in between us. "I suggest someone reel in the Ascended. Otherwise my Masters have no issue in killing a few. Have you ever tasted Shadowhunter blood? It is to die for." He licked his fangs before strolling out of the room.

I tugged on my parabatai's arm, she was still staring in the direction the vampire had left. "Come on, let's go find the others so we can get out of here."

Izzy followed after me but that didn't stop her from making a remark in Izzy style: "He was kinda vamp hot don't you think?"

••• 

When we arrived back at the Institute Alec and Izzy went to talk to their mother and father - the heads of ine Institute - about the vampire problem. I was afraid I was going to be left attempting to find my own room again but Sebastian walked back with me. Apparently he had done more exploring then I had and already knew the ins and outs of this place.

"Thanks, Sebastian," I told him as we reached my room. But, I walked into Izzy's room instead.

"Clary? Did you forget which one was your room?" Sebastian asked from the doorway.

"No I just need some pj's," I told my brother as I started going through her drawers.

"She won't mind?"

I found what I was looking for: some sleep shorts and a loose t-shirt. "No, we're parabatai. You always seem to forget that. And she offered to lend me clothes anyway." I pushed past him and back into my own room.

"I guess I'll never really know what that means: parabatai." He shrugged.

"You know you're still 17, right? You can still do the ceremony," I told him.

"Yeah, but who would be my parabatai? There's no one I'm close enough too. I think I'm better off alone anyhow." I caught a different meaning behind those words.

"You're not alone, Sebastian. Me, you, Mom, we're all in this together. We're all going through the same thing." I hugged him. I knew he had been a lot closer to Dad than I had. I knew he was hurting more than me.

"Thank you, Clary," he said pulling away. "I'd better get to bed. Big day tomorrow right?" I nodded. Sebastian was attempting to fill our father's shoes by training newly Ascended shadowhunters. Tomorrow would be a trail run with the ascended at the institute.

"May the angels be ever in your favor!," I called after my brother as he left the room, wishing him luck. Tomorrow would be a day for the books.


	2. Chapter 2

"Clary! Wake up! I made breakfast!" I groaned as someone ripped the blanket off of me. I shivered for warmth. Then I was hit with a pillow. "Clary!"

"What..." I croaked out opening my eyes. It was Izzy.

"Get up! I made breakfast!" She repeated.

"No Izzy, why." Being her parabatai I had been on the receiving end of far too many of Isabelle Lightwood's cooking disasters.

I was hit with the pillow again. "Shut up! It's just cereal, I don't think even I could ruin that." I wanted to argue that she could find a way but I didn't want to get hit with the pillow for a third time. "I left some training gear on the dresser. It's been far too long since we've trained together, parabatai." With that Izzy left me to get dressed.

I groaned as I rolled out of bed and inspected the training gear. It looked pretty much the same as what I had worn before in Idris, except newer. I dressed, put my hair up, and somehow managed to find my way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty except for my parabatai, Sebastian and Izzy's little brother, Max. "Morning," I yawned. I had met Max many times before but he always seemed to like Sebastian more than me. Maybe he thought I was stealing his sister or something.

Izzy handed me a bowl of milk and a box of cereal. After a quick hello the boys ignored me. Sebastian was showing Max some book he brought from Idris with him. "Izzy. The cereal goes in first, not the milk," I told her.

"It's all the same in the end." Izzy shrugged. I shook my head as I poured the cereal in and then quickly caught a spoon Izzy threw in my direction. Mad parabatai skills right there.

My parabatai sat down next to me with her own bowl of cereal. "So we're training today?" I questioned. It had been a while since I trained.

Izzy nodded. "Yeah, I thought it'd be a good way for you to get into the swing of things here, at the Institute." I nodded. It sounded like a pretty good idea.

"Max you have rune lessons with your father, don't forget," a voice said, entering the kitchen. I looked up from my cereal to see Maryse entering with my mother in tow.

"But Mom! Sebastian is showing me his book!" Max complained.

"Don't complain Max," Maryse told him.

Max didn't look happy and was about to open his mouth when Sebastian spoke. "Here, Max. Take the book, you can look at it later."

The nine year old's eyes lit up. "Thanks Sebastian!" He exclaimed clutching the book before running off.

"Sebastian, are you ready?" Maryse questioned. I had almost forgotten that he was supposed to train the Ascended today. My brother nodded and followed the head of the institute out of the room.

My mom kissed me on the head. "Morning, Clary, Izzy. Maryse told me you guys had some fun in the field last night." She sat down with a cup of coffee. I don't really know what part was exactly fun about last night. Well, Sebastian punching Jace had been the highlight at least.

Thinking of that moment I smiled. "Yeah, it was fun. A nice change from Idris."

My mother nodded. "What are you girls up to today?"

"We're gonna train," I told my mother.

"Really? Well, be careful. Both of you." Just leave it to my mother to be worried about my in the safety of the institute.

"We will be," I promised her. "Come on Izzy; I want to get training."

"That's the Clary I know and love," Izzy said as we put our empty bowls in the sink.

"Bye Mom," I said as we exited the kitchen. We made our way down to the training room but stopped short when we heard noise coming from the room.

"No!" Izzy exclaimed running into the room. I followed her to find Jace and Alec sparring in the training room. "Come on guys!"

Alec stopped what he was doing and turned towards us. "What?" He questioned and then Jace whacked him with the training sword. "Jace!"

"What? You got distracted," Jace laughed.

"Because my sister yelled at us! What do you want, Izzy?" Alec asked.

"I told you both yesterday Clary and I were using the training room today," Izzy argued.

"I figured you could just use the Ascended training room." Jace shrugged.

"Really? The training room where my brother is training the Ascended at this moment?" I jumped in. Jace Herondale really got on my last nerve.

"Yeah well you should have thought of that," Jace replied. "Don't blame us for your lapse in thinking."

"You little-" I started but Izzy held me back.

"He's just trying to rile you up, Clary," Izzy told me. "Come on, we'll go do something else until they're done."

"No!" I stood my ground. "We're gonna train. They can just deal with it." I strolled into the room.

Izzy laughed. "That's my Parabatai."

I walked over to the daggers to practice my throwing. I hadn't done that in a while. Hadn't done anything really. I threw a dagger in Izzy's direction which she caught, effortlessly.

"Showing off are we?" Jace remarked. I actually hadn't been showing off but it was nice to see him riled up for a change.

"Is the infamous Jace Herondale jealous at the bond I have with my parabatai?" I mocked.

Jace rolled his eyes. "As if. Alec and I can do that in our sleep. I'm surprised though, considering the two of you haven't really fought together in a real fight." I hated to admit it but Jace was right. Izzy and I had never been together during a mission (except last night which didn't include any fighting). "Are you guys even real parabatai? I mean you've never had each other's backs in a fight before."

"Jace, just stop it," Alec sighed, having enough of his parabatai.

I was about to retort something back to the blond when Izzy spoke. "How about we have a little competition? We'll show you boys just what a real parabatai pair looks like."

Alec sighed again and Jace grinned. "I like a challenge. But we'll be the ones showing you up."

"We'll just see about that," I said to him. I turned to Izzy. "Do you really think we can beat them?"

"After seeing them fight side by side for years, no not really," Izzy admitted, lowering her voice so the boys couldn't hear. "But we'll sure give them a run for their money."

"Are you girls ready to fight? Or are you going to chat all day?" Jace's voice asked.

I glared at the Herondale as Izzy grabbed a couple wooden training blades and handed one to me. "Alec sucks with these. He's only good with his arrows," she whispered to me. I nodded. We only had to really worry about Jace then.

"Whoever knocks the pair of parabatai down first wins," Jace decided. I vowed that that was not going to be Izzy and I. I had to prove to Jace once and for all I wasn't some little mundane girl. I was a shadowhunter, as deadly as he was. Izzy and I were the perfect pair and we would show him.

I weighed the wooden sword in my hand. It was a little longer and bulkier than Heosphoros, my blade that was the length of my forearm, but I knew I could handle it. I had learned on a wooden blade just like this.

"Okay then, read-" before Jace could finish speaking I darted at him, swinging the blade down towards his head. Quick as a flash he blocked it with his sword. He was stronger than me and pushed me back. He attempted to strike at me but Izzy was there, her sword in the way.

In an instant I rolled as I noticed another sword hacking my way: Alec. I was in a crouching position, using my blade to block his. Izzy was right. His posture was all wrong. Using the force from the ground, I pushed up at him knocking him off balance. I swung out my leg and tripped him. He fell on the floor, his sword bouncing away. One down, Jace to go.

"Clary!" Izzy shouted. I rolled again just as a sword made contact with the ground where I had been not a second before. Jace had gotten out of sparring with Izzy and made a beeline for me, apparently.

I swung my blade to block his next blow. "Izzy!" I shouted, giving my parabatai a knowing look. She smiled as the snake on her wrist uncoiled into a whip. I smiled as well.

"What are you smiling ab-" Jace didn't get to finish his question as the whip wrapped around his ankle. Izzy gave a tug and tripped him. He face planted the floor. I wish I had been recording that.

I laughed and walked over to Izzy. "Sorry Jace, you lost," I said with mock sorrow.

"That was cheating!" Jace exclaimed.

"You never said we couldn't use other weapons." Izzy shrugged. "And please, Jace, it's not like you don't bend the rules enough either."

A phone suddenly started to go off and Alec rolled to his feet. "That's mine," he announced as he made his way over to the table where his phone was sitting. "Hello? Magnus how did you-... I see, okay. We'll be over. Yeah. Bye." He looked at the three of us. "That was Magnus. He wants us to come over."

"Why?" I questioned.

"He didn't really give an explanation," Alec said. "Something to do with the downworlders."

My parabatai sighed. "Come on, Clary, let's go get changed, I guess."

I glanced at Jace as we left the room. He was still on the floor. "Izzy? Does Jace just normally lie on the floor like that without moving?"

"He's a Herondale. They all do ridiculous things," Izzy laughed. "Like being terrified of ducks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this chapter! And yeah I'm making Sebastian and Max buddies. I'm not evil or anything. I have some Malec coming next chapter so look out for that!


	3. Chapter 3

I screamed as I entered my room. Izzy rushed from her room. "Clary?!" She then stopped, realized what was going on and started laughing.

"My stuff!" I yelled running over to a stack of boxes. Half a dozen boxes and a couple suitcases were scattered around my room. It seemed someone had located our missing belongings.

I opened one box to find it full of pencils, crayons, watercolors, sketching paper: art supplies. I smiled.

"I love seeing you happy, Clary, but we really have to get going. It's best not to keep the High Warlock of Brooklyn waiting," my parabatai reminded me.

"I know," I said opening another box. "There! I was looking for my clothes. I'm sorry, Izzy, I love you but I want to put my own clothes on."

Izzy smiled, happy to see I was in such a good mood. "Well just try to hurry up." She left my room, closing the door behind her so I could get dressed.

I pulled out my favorite black leather jacket from the box. It smelled like home. I smiled and quickly got dressed and then knelt down next to one of the suitcases. Unzipping it I smiled again at what was inside: weapons of all kinds. Tucked inside a dark scabbard was my beloved blade: Heosphoros.

I attached the scabbard to my belt. It didn't matter to me that we were only going to talk to a warlock; I wasn't going to let this blade out of my sight again. It was the single most important item my father had ever give to me.

I opened the door and considered asking Sebastian to come with us but I stopped myself. No, he was busy training the Ascended. I didn't want to bother him.

"You ready?" Izzy questioned stepping out of her room. Her training gear was gone; she now wore a black dress and high-heeled boots, not like she needed to be any taller then she already was, but she loved them.

I nodded to her and we made our way down to the entryway. Jace and Alec were already waiting. "Took you long enough," Jace remarked. I didn't expect anything less from him.

"Not now, Jace," Alec sighed. I guess it was even possible for his parabatai to get tired of Herondale. "We need to get going; Magnus sounded impatient on the phone."

*~*~*~*~*

We arrived Magnus's loft and Alec knocked on the door. Half an instant later the door swung open revealing Magnus standing there.

"Ah, Alexander." The warlock smiled. "And you three," he said with a wave of his hand before ushering us inside.

"How did you know my name?" Alec questioned. I had been wondering the same thing. We hadn't exactly introduced ourselves the last time we were here.

"I am the High Warlock of Brooklyn, I have my ways," Magnus answered. "Alexander, I require your assistance." He grinned at Alec before turning to the rest of us, wearing a less interested face. "Simon, the vampire from last night, wants to speak with the rest of you. He's in the alley." The vampire wanted to see us? Again? We had just seen him last night.

"If you think I'm leaving Alec here alone with you, Warlock, you've got another thing coming," Jace argued. For once, I agreed with the blond. If it were Izzy in this position I wouldn't be so keen to leave her either.

Magnus sighed. "What is with you Herondales and being so overprotective of your parabatai?"

"You've known-" Jace never got to finish his sentence and Magnus cut him off.

"I swear on the angel that Alexander here will not be harmed. Feel free to hunt me down and kill me if I break my word," the warlock stated.

Jace still looked unsure. "Jace, it's fine," Alec told him. "Really, just go. Don't keep the vampire waiting."

"I won't just kill you warlock, I'll cut-" Izzy grabbed Jace's arm and steered him towards the door.

"Okay, and we're going," she said as we walked out of the warlock's loft.

"What alley did Magnus say the vampire was in?" I questioned glancing around. There were two alleys, one on either side of Magnus's house and also the ones across the street.

"He didn't," Izzy replied.

"Looking for me?" A voice said from the shadows of the alley to our right. In the dark I could just make out a figure standing there. As we made our way over I noticed that it was indeed the same vampire from the night before, Simon.

"Izzy, Clary." The vampire was smiling, in a way that ensured we would see his fangs, as we approached. The smile disappeared when he realized Jace was with us. "Oh you brought another one."

"What I want to know, is why the two of you are on a first name basis with a vampire?" Jace asked, sounding very annoyed.

"Because some people have manners, Jace," Izzy said to him before walking over to the vampire. She gingerly set her hand on his arm. "Ignore him. He's like a puppy dog, following us around. What was it you wanted, Simon?"

I could barely contain my laughter; Jace looked like he was going to explode. Then, the vampire slapped my parabatai's hand away and I ceased my laughter completely. The atmosphere changed instantly.

"I don't want any of your games," Simon snapped. "One of you shadowhunters killed one of ours last night, while we were at the party."

"You're mistaken," Izzy told him. "We were all accounted for last night. The Ascended were all in attendance during nightly roll call."

"How do you even know it was a shadowhunter?" Jace asked as well. "Just because a vampire was killed doesn't mean we did it."

"It is painfully obvious it was one of you. You'll understand when you see the body," Simon explained. "This way, shadowhunters."

I glanced at Izzy as we began to follow the vampire down the alley. I didn't understand how it could have been one of us. We were all accounted for last night. The same uncertainty was present in my parabatai's eyes.

Suddenly, Simon stopped. He opened a manhole leading down to the sewer below. "Ladies first," he insisted.

"Vampire first," Jace cut in. "For all we know you could be leading us into an ambush." Simon sighed, realizing he was not going to win this one and hopped down first.

Izzy went after him and I followed after her, Jace brought up the rear. I was starting to think following a vampire into a pitch black sewer probably wasn't the best idea but we really didn't have any other options.

Jace produced a witch light and I realised I had forgotten mine in the weapons suitcase.

Simon glanced back. "You shadowhunters and your angelic items," he sighed.

"Sorry we can't all see in the dark," Jace retorted. For once I agreed with him. Sure, we could just draw a Nyx rune for night vision but it was probably more trouble then it was worth.

The longer we walked the more I thought I should have just drawn a Nyx rune on myself. But then Simon led us to a dead end. He climbed the ladder and opened another manhole. Following him out, onto the street, I realised we were in another alley.

"In here," Simon said leading us into an abandoned building. It looked like it used to be a storehouse for something in the past.

In the center of the room lay a body and a head. The head was severed from the body, obviously how the vampire was killed.

The vampire was shirtless and when I saw what was on his chest I stifled a gasp. It was the Enkeli rune, angelic power. And the body had multiple burns from what appeared to be a seraph blade. This vampire hadn't just been killed, he had been tortured.

Simon picked up the decapitated head by the hair and tossed it to Jace. "Open the mouth." I glanced over as Jace did as he was told. The vampire's fangs had been ripped out. Jace threw the head on the floor. Not gonna lie I would have done the same.

"Spoils of war, no doubt," Simon said. "Obviously this was done by one of you. The burns from the blade, the mark. Someone is obviously trying to make a statement of their power."

"It wasn't one of us," Jace insisted. "There's no way. The Ascended were at the institute all night."

"As I recall there were five of you at the party last night," Simon stated. "I only talked to you two." He nodded towards Izzy and I. "You shadowhunters are swift. You could have killed him and made it back to the party before anyone had noticed your absence."

Simon was walking around. He stopped in front of Jace. "Perhaps it was you, Angel boy. Or maybe that black haired one Magnus has taken a liking to."

Jace whipped out a dagger and held it to the vampire's throat. "If you ever accuse me or my parabatai again I won't hesitate to kill you."

Simon laughed as he moved away from Jace. "Then, possibly it was the other boy. He looked like he had the devil in his eye."

"Sebastian wouldn't do it," I insisted.

"I highly suggest then, that you shadowhunters figure out who it is," Simon demanded. "Otherwise there will be war. My Masters have grown tired of this." With that, he was gone.

Jace pulled something out of his pocket. A black, rectangle object.

"What's that?" I asked Izzy.

"It's a cell phone, Clary," she told me. "He's taking a picture of the body."

"A phone can do all that?" I had never had one of these cell phones, or whatever. Izzy nodded.

Jace put his phone away after taking the picture. "Let's go get Alec and get back to the institute. Maryse is going to love hearing about this."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," I stated. "Whoever killed this vampire is obviously hiding it. If they find out we know they might be more cautious, making it harder for us to catch them." 

"Clary? You can't be implying that my mother was the one who did this, can you?" Izzy questioned.

"No, of course not. I trust Maryse. But what if somebody overhears? I think it's safer to keep it to ourselves. We can solve this ourselves. It had to be someone at the Institute. Find the fangs, find the killer."

"I don't say this often," Jace started. "But I agree with Clary."

"You've never said that," I told him.

"My point exactly."

"Okay," Izzy agreed. "We don't tell anybody other than Alec and Sebastian. We're all in this together."

"Agreed," Jace and I said at the same time. I glanced at him. I thought he was going to argue about Sebastian knowing. He didn't seem to like him very much. "Let's go get Alec. I may have a warlock I need to kill."


	4. Chapter 4

Jace knocked violently on Magnus' door. "Open up, Warlock!" he shouted right before the door opened.

"You're all so persistent," Magnus sighed, standing in the doorway. He let the three of us inside. "As you can tell, I did not harm your parabatai." Alec was sitting on the couch with a cat in his lap.

"We're going, Alec," Jace declared.

"Oh, right," Alec replied, gingerly setting the cat down on the couch and standing up. The tabby meowed and stared after him as he walked away.

"Thank you for your help, Alexander," Magnus said as we walked out the door.

"R-right, anytime," Alec replied. The warlock was grinning at him like an idiot and did Alec look...shy? I glanced at Izzy but her face didn't give anything away. I'd ask her about it later.

The four of us began walking away from the warlock's loft and Jace looked at Alec. "What did Magnus want with you anyway?"

"Oh, he needed him finding Chairman Meow," the ebony haired boy explained.

"Chairman what?" Jace questioned.

"His cat," Alec sighed. "It was hiding underneath Magnus' bed the entire time." I remembered the warlock saying something about the party being for Chairman Meow...who gave their cat a birthday party?

"Who knew you were so pet friendly, Alec," Izzy laughed. "The cat looked like he was really smitten with you." I sensed that her words held a double meaning, just another thing I would ask her about later.

"Apparently animals like me," Alec decided. "Just not Church."

"Church doesn't like anybody," Jace told him.

"Who's Church?" I asked. That was a name I had not heard before.

"He's our cat," Izzy told me. "I'm surprised you haven't seen him already. He's usually around."

"Max pulled his tail the other day," Jace said. "He's in a mood."

"Since when do you have a cat? I've known you for my entire life and you never mentioned a cat." I was really confused about the whole cat thing. Having an animal was usually something you mentioned to somebody, especially if you were bound for life.

"He's not exactly our cat," my parabatai explained. "He's kind of just been at the Institute forever. He's immortal or something." I didn't even want to question how a cat could become immortal so I left that subject alone. Growing up a shadowhunter you learned that some things were just weird.

*~*~*

We arrived back at the Institute and I went off to find Sebastian. We needed to talk to him about what Simon had said. Jace hadn't told Alec about the killing yet either. He was going to wait until my brother was there so we wouldn't have to explain it twice.

I got lucky because Sebastian and the Ascended were taking a break. Or they were supposed to be, I actually found him lunging with his sword in the empty training room. Phaesphoros was the name of the blade. The twin to mine. Our father had given it to him when he received his first rune, just as I was given Heosphoros when I received mine.

My brother noticed me and stopped. "How'd it go today?" I questioned. Sebastian walked over towards me, stopping short at the table to take a drink of water.

"Alright I guess," Sebastian replied.

"Good then." I grabbed his wrist and started pulling him out of the room. "We need to talk."

I led him to Izzy's room where the five of us had agreed to meet. "Finally," Jace sighed as Sebastian and I entered the room. I glared at him. Sure, I had gotten lost, again, but I hated Jace acting like he was better than me.

"Now that we're all here," Alec started as I closed the door behind me. "What's this all about?"

"Magnus invited us over to meet Simon again," I informed Sebastian. I hadn't said anything to him on the way over, not wanting anybody else to overhear.

"And while Alec was finding a cat, the three of us met Simon," Izzy explained.

Jace took out his phone. "The vampire led us to a body; a vampire that was killed by a shadowhunter." He passed the picture on his phone to his parabatai and then Alec passed it to my brother.

Sebastian passed the phone back to its owner. "And I'm guessing you guys have no idea who killed the vampire?"

I nodded as Jace spoke. "Simon had a hunch that it was an Ascended. Or you," he stared at my brother.

"I was at the party, with you all," Sebastian defended himself.

"Yes, but Alec and I were together the entire time, so neither of us did it," Jace concluded. "And those two were with the vampire." He pointed to Izzy and I. "You were the only one alone. You had plenty of time to kill the vampire and make it back to the party without any of us knowing."

That was it. I was tired of people accusing Sebastian. He would never do something like that. Izzy placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me from yelling at Jace. I got the meaning: Sebastian needed to defend himself.

"Me?" Sebastian laughed. "Why would I kill a random vampire? I don't even know the layout of New York, I've never been out in the field to know exactly how to kill a vampire." It was the truth; living in Idris our entire lives, our parents had sheltered us from life outside, and that meant a life from missions and downworlders.

Jace clenched his jaw as he considered Sebastian's words.

"Fine, then what about the Ascended angle?" Alec asked.

"Impossible," Izzy interjected. "All the Ascended were at roll call last night, I heard Mom mention it this morning."

Sebastian nodded in agreement. "Maryse told me the same thing. And roll call happened when we were at the party, there's no way one of them could have done it."

The five of us stood there, silent. We were just going around in circles. Then, I got another idea. "Are there other shadowhunters in New York?" I questioned. "Like, not living at the Institute."

"Obviously not," Jace said to me. "They would have been the first suspects if so." And then we were stumped again.

I sighed. "Okay, let's take a step back. How many shadowhunters are at the Institute?"

"Let's see," Izzy thought aloud. "Us five, Max, Mom, Dad, your Mom and five Ascended. How many is that? Ten?"

"Six Ascended," Sebastian corrected Izzy. "Another arrived this morning."

We all turned to him. "What did you just say?" Jace asked.

"There's six Ascended now. One more came this morning," Sebastian repeated. That got our gears ticking.

"Is it possible that they arrived last night? They could have easily snuck around Brooklyn and killed the vampire. Then they could have made it seem like they just arrived this morning," I hypothesized. It sounded very probable. Everyone except Sebastian seemed to agree with me, even Jace.

"No," my brother said. "He wouldn't. I don't think he has it in him."

"Who are we talking about here?" Jace questioned.

"George," Sebastian said. "George Lovelace."

"Lovelace?" Jace repeated. "I know that last name." He thought for a second. "There was a Lovelace that lived at the London Institute with my great-great-grandfather or something."

"But they're an inactive family now," Alec said. "Who knows if they even know about being shadowhunters any longer."

"But George is an actual Lovelace," Sebastian told the five of us. "Or, sort of. He was a mundane but adopted by the Lovelace family. But George...he's the sweetest shadowhunter you'll ever meet. He wouldn't do it."

Jace slammed his palms down on Izzy's side table making everyone jump. "Well somebody did it! One of the eleven shadowhunters at this Institute did."

"The vampire fangs," I suddenly remembered. "They took them as a spoil. We have the find the fangs. If we find the fangs we find the killer."

"So what's the plan then?" Izzy asked. "Search everybody's rooms?"

"Sounds like a place to start, at least," Alec decided.

"Are we seriously banking on the idea that someone in our family killed the vampire?" Izzy exclaimed.

"I still think it was an Ascended." Jace shrugged. "Somehow, someway."

Sebastian threw his hands up. "Whatever. I'll be training with the Ascended until dinner. You four can deal with searching everyone's rooms." He glanced at the time. "I actually have to go right now." He looked at me. "Tell me how it goes." I nodded before he left the room.

"I'm actually taking Max to the bookstore," Alec announced. "So it'll just be you three."

"Awesome." I smiled. Working with Izzy was great, but Jace on the other hand...

Jace cracked his knuckles. "Let's go break some doors down."

"Jace," I said. "The whole point of this is to not draw attention to ourselves," I told him as the four of us filed out of the room.

"Right. Let's break some doors down...quietly."


	5. Chapter 5

"We should start by searching that Lovelace's room," Jace suggested.

"Why?" I asked. "Sebastian already ruled him out as a suspect."

"It's the nice ones you always gotta watch out for," Jace said. "How much do we really know about him? What if its just a front? What if he really is the one doing this? That Lovelace that my great whatever knew, I remember something about her betraying the London Institute. George could have it in him."

I decided not to mention the fact that George wasn't actually of Lovelace descent because he had been adopted. But... he did have a point about it always being the quiet ones. "Fine, we go to George's room first."

"Isabelle," a deep voice said from the corridor. The three of us turned to see a man standing there: Robert Lightwood. "Neither you or your brother reported what happened with Magnus this morning." Crap. We were caught.

"Right! Sorry, we forgot," Izzy said. "Um, I'll come with you now!" She followed her dad off, turning her head towards me to mouth 'sorry.' She was leaving me alone with Jace Herondale.

"And then there were two," Jace commented. "Come on, we have a lot of rooms to search." Following after the blond, I found myself surprised that he hadn't made some sarcastic comment to me.

We entered George's room to find that it was as sparse as mine had been when I arrived. The only thing that was out of place was a suitcase on the bed. I supposed he hadn't had the chance to unpack yet.

Jace unzipped the suitcase as I walked around the room opening drawers making sure there was nothing there. I glanced at Jace and couldn't help but thinking that we were invading the Ascended's privacy. But it had to be done.

"No vampire fangs here," the blond said zipping back up the suitcase. "The rest of the Ascended's rooms are in this hallway. We can split them up between the two of us."

I nodded and entered the room across the hallway. It looked like a girl's room with a frilly bedsheet and clothes thrown around. It was a complete mess. I delicately walked through the room, picking up clothes and checking inside pockets. I then made sure I put them back exactly like I found them. It took forever.

"You done yet?" Jace's voice floated from the doorway. I was just finishing up the room, checking in the closet. "I already checked the other four."

"How did you manage that already?" I knew I had taken a while but not that long. I closed the closest door and tip-toed around all the clothes on the floor.

"Because they weren't a mess like this room," Jace shrugged. "But no vampire fangs."

I nodded. "I didn't find them in here either." I voiced a thought I had had halfway through looking through the room. "Why would someone hide them in their own room? Wouldn't they hide them someplace else?"

Jace shook his head. "Whoever took them...they want to show it off as some sort of trophy. They wouldn't just leave them around some place for someone else to find."

"Then they must have it on them," I concluded. "We've searched all the Ascended's' rooms."

Jace shook his head. "We haven't checked everybody's yet," he said as he started walking down the corridor. I followed after him.

"Didn't we decide it had to be an Ascended? Who's left?" I questioned. Was there someone else living here that no one had mentioned before?

Jace didn't say anything. Then, I realized where he was going. "Jace!" I shouted. I ran in front of him to stop him. "Sebastian didn't do it! You were there when he cleared himself!"

The blonde crossed his arms. "I never agreed that he was in the clear."

I stared him down...or up. He was taller then me. "Sebastian didn't do it," I repeated, more forcefully this time.

"Then let me check his room. Prove his innocence."

I sighed, frustrated. "Fine! If this is the only way you can get it through your thick skull that my brother didn't kill the vampire!"

Jace chuckled at my outburst and pushed past me, walking further down the hallway until he reached Sebastian's room. I stood in the doorway as he began going through my brother's things. He wasn't very careful and started throwing stuff around.

It took ten minutes before Jace was satisfied that the vampire fangs weren't in Sebastian's room. He started walking over to me, out of the room. "See? I told you Sebastian didn't do it."

Suddenly the wood creaked underneath Jace's feet. One panel of wood sounded different than the others. The shadowhunter stopped and tapped the wood with his foot. It sounded odd. He knelt down and knocked on it. A hollow sound echoed.

"It's hollow," Jace said. "There's something underneath here." I held my breath as he removed the panel of wood.

My heart stopped as he pulled out a small leather pouch. When he turned it upside down to empty it two white teeth fell into his hand. The vampire fangs.

"That's impossible..." There was no why Sebastian could have done it. I didn't believe it.

Jace put the fangs back in the bag and placed the bag back in the secret compartment. He replaced the wood panel. He quickly stood up, grabbing my wrist. "Come with me." I was still too shell-shocked to argue.

Before I knew it we were entering my room. Jace closed the door behind us and locked it.

I looked at him. "Are you happy now? Proving that my brother is a liar as well as a murderer?" I could feel myself fighting back tears. After everything that had happened recently I couldn't take this too.

"Clary-" Jace started but I cut him off.

"That was a rhetorical question. Of course you're happy! You suspected Sebastian instantly! Oh look, Jace was right again," I laughed dryly.

"Clary, shut up!" Jace hissed. "Sebastian didn't do it!"

I stared at him. "What?" Now I was confused. "We just found the fangs in his room."

"It's too easy," he told me.

"But you said if we find the fangs we find the killer-"

"Actually, you said that, if you remember correctly," Jace pointed out.

"But you agree-"

"Actually, I didn't." Jace had gotten me very confused. "All this? It's too easy. Find the fangs, find the killer. Obviously, the real killer would have realized we were going to think that. They had to think of something else." Finally, I was catching on.

"So... they hid the fangs in someone else's room." I looked at Jace as I realized something. "They're trying to pit us against each other."

Jace nodded. "If we're fighting amongst ourselves we'll be too preoccupied to notice them."

"So what were the vampire fangs then? A distraction?" I asked.

"Most likely," he agreed.

"Then the question is...what were they distracting us from?"


	6. Chapter 6

Jace and I stood silent for a few moments, both letting our recent revelation wash over us. I had a feeling that whatever we were supposed to be distracted from was a lot worse than a vampire being killed.

Jace was the one who broke the silence, noticing my box of art supplies. He walked over to it and picked up the first thing in the box: an old sketch pad of mine. "What's this?" He asked as he opened it. That sketch book was a couple years old, filled with drawings of shadowhunter life in Idris: the glass city of Alicante, what the hills looked like from the Mogenstern Manor, Lake Lynn, and more. It was a reminder of the life that I could never call my own again.

"Just drawing stuff," I told him.

"I recognize this style," Jace noted. He glanced at me. "You drew the picture in Izzy's room didn't you?"

I nodded. I knew what picture he was talking about. I had drawn my Parabatai dozens of pictures over the years but the one on the wall was the one she wanted the most: a self portrait of myself. Izzy said it was better than a picture, she saw me in it, my art, my style, what made me Clary, she had said.

Jace set the sketch pad back in the box and looked at me. "I didn't know you were an artist."

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," I told him. Maybe if he had taken two seconds to get to know me I wouldn't be practically a stranger to him.

Before Jace could say anything, there was a meow at the door. You read that right: meow.

We looked towards the door to notice a plump gray cat sitting there.

"Church," Jace said making his way over to the cat. So this was the infamous Church. "What is it? Is Alec back?" He reached out to pet the cat but Church hissed and he drew his hand away. Church turned and started walking down the hall. "We better follow him."

I followed after Jace and the cat. Church led the way through the corridors of the Institute that I was just starting to learn my way around. He stopped in the entry way because there stood Max, Alec and Izzy.

Max was showing Izzy the book he got at the bookstore. I swear the gray car glared at the nine year old as he slinked away.

"I wasn't sure if Church was going to find you or not," Alec stated. Izzy, realizing that we were here, looked away from he book and to me.

"Church likes me, of course he found me," Jace said. Considering the cat had just hissed at him, I wasn't so sure that was true. And didn't he just say this morning that Church didn't like anybody?

"Church hates you," Izzy pointed out. "And us. And everybody on this Earth." 

Max ran off to show his parents the book he had got, leaving the four of us. "Did you find anything?" Alec questioned as soon as the kid was out of earshot.

"Not here," Jace mumbled and the group of us made our way into Izzy's room once again. Our rooms happened to be the closest to the front of the Institute.

I wanted to wait to tell Sebastian but be wasn't going to be done training for another hour or so. I figured I could just fill him in later.

"The vampire fangs weren't in any of the Ascendeds' rooms," Jace told the siblings. "But we did find them."

"Where?" Alec questioned.

"In Sebastian's room. Hidden under a loose panel in the floor," he explained and the Lightwoods gasped.

"Sebastian didn't do it," I told them.

Jace nodded. "It's too easy for Sebastian to have done it. It's what anybody would suspect."

"So you think someone planted them there?" Izzy asked.

"Yes," I answered her. "Someone wants us to think it was Sebastian. They're trying to distract us."

"Distract us from what?" Alec wondered.

"We don't know," Jace told him. "But it's probably something bad. That's why we need to stay ahead of this; we need to make whoever actually killed that vampire believe we're playing along with there game but in reality we're not."

What was Jace saying now? We hadn't talked about any of this.

"That's why we can't let Sebastian in on the fact that we know he didn't do it. He has to believe that we really think he killed the vampire."

"No!" I shouted. "We're not doing that! He can just pretend like the rest of us."

"Clary, some aspect of this needs to be real," Jace told me.

"I can't lie to him," I said. I had never lied to him before. We were close, almost as close as Parabatai. Lying to him was like lying to Izzy. "I won't."

I stood my ground. I wasn't going to lie to my brother like that, not after everything that had happened in the past weeks. Jace crossed his arms and glared back at me. It was looking like he wasn't going to let up either.

Finally, Izzy spoke. "Clary..." I could tell by her tone it was not what I wanted to hear. "I think Jace is right."

"Izzy!" I spun to face her. "You're supposed to side with me!"

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Clary. It's just...Jace's idea is better. If we're all acting someone is gonna slip up. At least with Sebastian thinking we all think he's the murderer that gives it some degree of authenticity."

I still couldn't believe my Parabatai was siding with Jace Herondale. I didn't want to listen to her reasoning.

"It's three to one, Clary, majority rules," Alec pointed out. Of course, he sided with his Parabatai. I huffed and crossed my arms, not liking the situation. He looked at Jace. "So what's our next move?"

"When Sebastian gets out of training we confront him about the fangs," Jace explained. "Make him believe that we are sure he did it."

***

I leaned against the wall next to the training room, glaring at Jace. I hated this plan of his.

"Clary, just to note: you're not going to kill me with your glaring," he informed me.

"Sadly you're right, but just think could you do what I have to do? Could you lie to Alec?" I challenged him.

He sighed. "If it was the only way, yes. And this is the only way, Clary."

Shadowhunters started to file out of the training room and that stopped our conversation. I pushed off the wall when all the Ascended had left, leaving Sebastian alone in the room. I followed after Jace inside.

My brother was putting away some equipment as we walked over to him. He looked up. "Did you guys find the fangs?"

"Why don't we show him, Clary?" Jace said. I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't going to play a bigger part in this than was necessary.

I didn't dare look at Sebastian as we made our way to his room. I was afraid he would see the truth on my face. And as much as I hated this entire plan if we were going to go through with it, I couldn't screw it up.

Izzy and Alec were already inside my brother's room. They had been waiting since we went to go get Sebastian.

"What's going on?" Sebastian asked as we entered the room. "What are you guys doing in my room?"

"Why don't we show him?" Jace nodded to his parabatai. Alec kicked open the wood panel and then reached down to pick up the small pouch. He tossed it to Jace.

The blond produced the fangs from inside the bag, showing them off to Sebastian. "What do we have here? Vampire fangs."

"I didn't do it!" Sebastian yelled. "I didn't even know that compartment was there, I swear!" I believed every word that he said.

Jace carelessly threw the pouch and fangs on the bed. He gripped Sebastian's shirt and shoved him against the wall. "I'm tired of your lies, Morgenstern!"

"I'm not lying!" Sebastian shouted and shoved Jace away. He searched the four of our faces. His gaze stopped on mine. "Clary? You can't seriously believe this?" I looked down. I didn't trust my own voice. 

"Even your own sister knows you did it," Jace said. "Why can't you just admit it?"

"Because I didn't do it! Someone is framing me!" Sebastian defended himself.

"Cut the crap, Sebastian!" Jace snapped. "We all know you did it!"

"Then turn me into the Clave! Let them use the Mortal Sword on me! You'll see that I didn't do it when I tell the truth," Sebastian reasoned. Jace was silent. "That's it, isn't it? You don't have enough proof!"

"You'd better watch yourself," Jace warned. "Because the second we do have the proof we will turn you in." With that the blond walked out of the room, Alec trailing after him. I started to walk out after Izzy but Sebastian grabbed my arm.

"Clary...please. You can't believe this. After everything we've been through together." His voice hurt me. I forced myself to pull my wrist from his grasp.

"I don't know what I believe anymore." With that I walked out of his room feeling horrible.


	7. Chapter 7

I gripped my coffee cup staring idly at the empty chair across the table. It was the chair Sebastian had been sitting in not moments before. It was a few days after our confrontation. The two of us had eaten a silent breakfast together. No one else was awake, or at least no one else was in the kitchen yet. I made sure I had looked at anything but him. I still thought if I caught his pleading eyes I would spill the truth.

It had reminded me too much of the morning after our father had died. It had just been the two of us. Mom was dealing with funeral arrangements. I hadn't looked at him all breakfast. I saw too much of Dad in him.

"Morning," a voice said causing me to jump. The mug slipped from my grasp and shattered when it hit the table.

"I didn't realize my voice had such a heart-shattering effect," the voice said again. Jace. It was too early in the morning and I was in no mood to deal with him so I ignored him. "Don't cut yourself," he warned as I began to pick up the shards.

I sighed. "I'm a shadowhunter, I'm not going to cu-"

"You cut yourself didn't you?" He asked, humor in his voice.

"No," I lied throwing the shards away in the trash. I was getting a rag to wipe up the spilled coffee when he grabbed my arm.

He turned my hand towards him revealing a cut going across four of my fingers. The mug-shard hadn't been kind. I noticed him pulling out his stele. "I don't need-" but I was too late and he was already drawing the iratze rune on my palm.

When he finished the rune glowed golden. The cut closed before the rune disappeared. I pulled my wrist out of his grasp and went back to wiping the table.

"Oh thank you Jace, for the wonderful iratze that healed my cut," Jace mocked. "Oh, no, it was my pleasure."

"It was sloppy actually," I informed him. "And I can draw my own runes, thanks." I rinsed the towel off before laying it out to dry.

"Sloppy? It was not sloppy," Jace argued, seeming slightly offended.

"I guess the great Jace Herondale can't be amazing at everything." I shrugged as I left the kitchen.

"Hey!" Izzy called out to me just as she rounded a corner. "I was just about to make breakfast, did you already eat?"

"Feel free to kill Jace with your cooking," I told her.

"I really hate that my own parabatai has no faith in my cooking skills," Izzy sighed.

"I really hate that my own parabatai decided to side with Jace over me," I retorted back at her.

"Clary...I thought we were past that," Izzy seemed slightly hurt.

I sighed. "Sorry, Izzy. We are, I know we have to do this to catch whoever is the actual killer. It's just...I hate it. I can't even look at Sebastian cause every time I do I see so much betrayal and hurt in his eyes. And Jace is a jerk."

"Oh Clary," she said, concerned. "I know. I can't even imagine what that feels like. Even thinking of having to do something like this to Alec...But I do agree with you. Jace is a jerk. If I poison him will that make you feel better?"

I smiled slightly. "Immensely so."

"Alright then." She walked past me into the kitchen. "Oh Jace! Are you hungry?" her voice carried. I heard Jace shout something as I smiled, walking down the hallway.

As I rounded the corner I ran into a wall. Actually it was just Alec but he was so tall he might as well be a wall. "Sorry," I told him.

"It's fine," he straightened out his jacket. I then noticed his attire was a little bit...dressed up.

"Where are you off to?" I questioned.

"Out," Alec said. "If Jace asks tell him I'll be back later." He then rushed past me. I shrugged. Alec and I had never been horribly close. I was just his sister's parabatai, nothing more. Of course he wouldn't tell me anything.

When I entered my room I found my brother sitting on my bed. "Sebastian please, I need to take a shower, Izzy and I-"

He cut me off, "Clary, please. You won't even look at me. Y-you're acting as if I'm a monster. I'm not. I'm your brother. I'm who I've always been Clary, I didn't do this."

I started to rummage through one of my drawers. Taking much longer than I needed to to grab a pair of jeans. "We found the fangs hidden in your room. I'm sorry Sebastian it's just the evidence-"

"What evidence?!" he snapped. "You found them in a spot I didn't even know existed! Someone is framing me, Clary! The other don't know me, I don't blame them for suspecting me but you...Clary. You're my sister. You're supposed to trust me." His voice was breaking. I stopped rummaging in my drawer but I didn't look at him. I was afraid if I did that I would see the look of his face and tell the truth.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian. I don't believe you," the words hurt coming out of my mouth. "When Jace found th-"

"Jace found them?" Sebastian stopped and then started laughing. "Of course Jace found them! Clary who's the one who's had it out for me since day one?"

The gears started turning in my head in a direction I did not want them to go. I finally turned to face my brother. "Jace wouldn't..." I trailed off. How well did I really know Jace Herondale? "He had an alibi at the party."

"Alec? I'd hardly count someone's own parabatai as an alibi. Izzy would lie for you in an instant." He was right, she had. There was one time when we were little when I got injured while we were training because I wanted to try something far more advanced then I should have. When my father came in to investigate the reason behind my crying Izzy had automatically lied and said it had been her fault.

"I..." I didn't know what I was going to say. I didn't want to accuse Jace. I was even more frustrated with myself because I didn't know why.

"Think about it Clary! How did he find the secret compartment? I've lived there for days and never noticed it! And he just happens to come across it being in the room for the first time?" As much as I hated to admit it...Sebastian was making sense. Jace was the one who orchestrated this entire thing, lying to Sebastian. What if he was the one trying to distract us?

"Who are you going to trust Clary? Your brother who's been there for you since day one or the blond jerk you've known for a week?" Sebastian asked.

That was it. I couldn't do this anymore. "You. I trust you, Sebastian. I'll always trust you. Just...play along. Don't let Jace know you suspect him. Let me talk to Izzy about this."

"You can't tell Izzy," he told me.

"Why? She's my parabatai!"

"What else is she? She's practically Jace's sister. She'll protect him, you know she will."

"Sebastian! You obviously don't understand what parabatai means! If I truly believe something, she'll trust me." He had never had a parabatai. He didn't know what it meant, what it felt like.

"I'm just saying, Clary," he started. "Our only way to stay ahead of Jace may be if he doesn't know if we suspect him. Are you 100% sure Izzy won't go running to Jace?"

She wouldn't do that....would she? I hated doubting my parabatai but look how quick she was to jump onto Jace's idea?

"She's my parabatai, not yours," I informed him. "I'll decide if I tell her or not."

"Fine, Clary. I trust you. I know you'll do what you think is best," he passed me as he left the room.

I sighed as let his words roll through my mind. Did Jace really kill the vampire? Was he really trying to frame Sebastian and distract the rest of us? Could I trust Izzy not to tell him?

A knock at my door broke me out of my thoughts. "Clary, we need to talk."


	8. Chapter 8

"Clary, we need to talk."

I looked to the door to see my mother standing there. "Mom?" I questioned. We hadn't really spoken a lot since we arrived at the Institute, I had been too busy.

She was silent as she closed my door and motioned for me to sit on my bed next to her. 

"Mom, what's going on? You're freaking me out," I told her. She was acting weird and she had an odd expression on her face.

"I'm going back to Idris."

"Wait, what? Mom, we just got here and-"

"Honey, this place, Institute life, it isn't for me," she explained. "Besides. Someone has to take over your father's position until a replacement can be found."

I couldn't believe what she was saying. Were we to pack up and move again? "But Mom! You expect me to leave after-"

She cut me off again. "No, Clary. You and Sebastian are staying. I know it's important for you to be here with Izzy. And Sebastian is doing great work with the Ascended here. There's no need for the two of you to come with me."

She was leaving us here? Not that I didn't want to stay here with Izzy but I never thought my mom would go home without us. 

Suddenly, I felt bad for Sebastian, he would want to go back with her. "Why don't you take Sebastian with you? Working at the institute was never his goal. He wanted to take Dad's job." 

She sighed. "Sebastian is skilled, but he's young. Training the Ascended here is a lot different from in Idris. He needs time to grow up a little. I'm sure in a few years time whoever is in charge will be happy to welcome Sebastian on board, but for now his place is here."

Part of me was glad Sebastian was to stay here with me but the other part felt bad for him, still. I knew he would be mad about this. 

"But, Mom," I started. "I'm going to miss you." I had never gone a day without seeing my mom. She had always been around for me.

"Oh, baby." She hugged me. "I'm going to miss you too, you and Sebastian both. But you can come visit anytime you like, or send a fire message."

I pulled back. "Thanks, Mom. It's just going to be weird without having you around."

"Believe me, it'll be even weirder for me."

Just then, Izzy barged into my room. "Clary! Are you ready to g-" she stopped realizing my mom was sitting there. "Oh, hi Jocelyn."

"Hello, Isabelle, were you two going somewhere? I don't want to keep you." My mom stood up off my bed.

"Mom it's-" I started.

"No, Clary, go have fun with Izzy, we can talk when you get back," my mom said as she started to walk from my room. 

"Clary, hurry up and shower please. We have a schedule to keep," Izzy informed me and left the room before my mother did.

Mom paused at the doorway and turned back to me. "Clary?" 

"Yeah?"

She looked like she was going to say something and then decided against it. "Have fun with Izzy," she repeated before leaving. 

I shrugged as I got my clothes together and hopped in the shower.

*** 

Izzy was pulling me through dress shop after dress shop, trying to help me find something for tonight.

Every time I picked out a dress I kept hearing from her "not short enough....not enough cleavage...not

sexy enough" and sometimes she just shook her head and told me no.

I kept telling her Sebastian would have her head if she made me wear such a raunchy dress but she didn't really seem to care.

When I saw our time was almost up I grabbed a simple black spaghetti strap dress off the rack and ushered Izzy towards checkout, ignoring her complaints.

"You should really learn to drive," Izzy told me as we climbed into the car. "You're not in Idris anymore with no need for transportation. Come on, I'll even teach you." She started the engine and we began driving away from the dress shop. 

"Thanks Izzy I-" the words were lost as Izzy suddenly slammed on the breaks and I lurched forward. Lucky thing I had my seatbelt on. "Izzy!" I exclaimed.

She ignored me, rolling down her window. "Alec!" She shouted. I realized that Alec was standing across the street, presumably coming back from wherever he had been before. 

He noticed us and made his way over. He climbed in the backseat and Izzy turned around to face him.

"Where were you coming back from?" She questioned. Apparently she hadn't known where he went either. 

"No where," Alec told her.

She rolled her eyes. "Always a mysterious big bro," she sighed as she started driving again. 

"Clary you can't wear this," Alec said. I turned to realize he was referring to the dress I picked out.

"What? Why not? Izzy's is far worse than mine," I told him. Why was everybody trying to control what I wore? 

"I gave up trying to stop Izzy from wearing anything years ago." I heard a snicker from my Parabatai.

"But I'm being serious. It's ripped."

"What!" I exclaimed. That must have been the reason it was on the clearance rack. 

"Calm down, Clary," Izzy said to me. "I can fix it if it's not too big of problem."

"If your sewing skills are anything like your cooking, I'm afraid." 

"Ha-ha." She didn't seem amused.

**** 

 

It was too big of a problem for Izzy to fix, or at least to fix in the small window of time we had. I wore another of Izzy's old dresses. I loved my Parabatai but her clothing style just wasn't me. That's why we went out looking for a dress. 

I was at least glad it wasn't too tight fitting. I was able to strap a couple daggers to my thighs.

"You ready?" Izzy questioned and I buckled the strap on my shoes. Looking at her was almost like

looking at a different person.

I was used to seeing her with runes covering her body. The voyance rune on her hand, the Parabatai rune arching around her neck, the scars of long faded runes. But her skin was clear, no runes of any kind. She had covered them up with make-up, just like she had done mine. No one was going to mistake us for shadowhunters tonight.

"Yeah," I replied grabbing my purse. We walked out of my room to find Church sitting in the hallway.

"Meow," he said. It sounded as if he was bored. He turned and walked down the hallway. 

Izzy and I followed him. He led us to the entryway where Jace was standing.

"Oh look, he found you. Good Church." He reached out to let the cat but Church hissed and swatted at his hand before turning tail and running off. "Demented cat." He glanced at the two of us. "The vampire is here."

I could feel Jace Herondale checking me out as we walked out the door of the Institute. I gripped one of the daggers and threw it backwards at him. I heard it sink into the wall neck to him.

"What the hell!" He shouted.

"Next time you're a perv I won't miss," I promised him. Izzy snickered.

"My, you two look ravishingly," Simon said as we stepped outside.

"I already threw one dagger at someone tonight, don't make me lose my second one too," I told Simon. I was on a short fuse today. After what my mom told me this morning and the agonizing hours shopping with Izzy for nothing I had just about had it. 

"Forgive me, Clary, I'm a vampire, we have cravings." I couldn't tell if that was an apology or another attempt at flirting. I decided to ignore the comment all together.

"So how's this going to work?" I asked him. 

"Ah, the orgy in Hoboken, yes," he started. "We're going to walk in and you two are going to pretend you're mundanes. Find out the information you need and get out before someone discovers that you're shadowhunters. That's it because I'll never hear the end of it from Raphael if he finds out that I let shadowhunters into a vampire party."

He started walking down the block, the two of us following him when he turned back. "Oh and as a reminder. If either of you kill a vampire tonight all bets are off. No one's going to hesitate to rip your delectable little throats out."


	9. Chapter 9

My feet were already killing me and we hadn't even gotten to the party yet. Izzy had insisted that I wear these stupid heels. Thanks to knowing her my entire life, I could wear and even fight in heels. But this particular pair was new and I hadn't given the blood sacrifice to them yet.

We were still following Simon on the way to the party. Had I known it was this far I would have told Izzy that we should drive.

"So what did your mom want this morning?" Izzy suddenly questioned. It dawned on me that I hadn't told her yet. Between dress shopping and getting ready for tonight there hadn't really been time.

I sighed. "She's going back home, to Alicante."

"What? Why? You all just got here."

"She doesn't feel at home here. And she said someone had to take over training the Ascended in Idris now that Dad is gone," I explained.

"So I'm guessing that Sebastian is staying too then?"

I nodded. "Mom thought it would be best for him to wait until he's older to take over in Idris. She wants him to train here with your mom still."

"You know I don't see my mother much either," Simon intervened. "Last time I saw her she threw a Star of David at my head and kept calling me a monster." I had forgotten about the vamp hearing.

"Well you are a monster." I shrugged.

"Your words wound me, Clary," Simon said dramatically. "But stop all talk about Idris or Alicante or anything shadowhunter. We're here."

We were standing in front of a very high end hotel. Simon strode through the front door like he owned the place and Izzy and I followed.

We entered an elevator and Simon punched the button for the penthouse suite.

"This isn't the Hotel Dumort," Izzy realized. She had told me that was their base of operations.

"The Hotel Dumort? You think I'd bring the likes of you there? No." Simon seemed amused.

The elevator dinged open and the first thing I heard was the roar of dance music. Dozens of people were in the penthouse dancing, standing around enjoying drinks. Some vampires were even indulging in mundanes.

"You'll want to talk to Javier," Simon told us. "He was friends with the vampire who was killed. He likes redheads, he should tell you everything you want to know." With that he disappeared into the crowd.

"But who even is Javier? There's like a hundred people here," I sighed.

"We'll ask around, come on," Izzy told me and dragged me into the penthouse. She grabbed two glasses of champagne off a server and handed one to me. "Blend in."

Izzy took a sip of her glass while I stared at mine. I had had alcohol before, the occasional cup of wine, but I didn't like it much.

I suddenly felt fingers brushing the hair off my shoulder and I whipped around with shadowhunter speed. I wanted to grab my dagger and hold it to their throat but I resisted, clutching the glass of champagne tighter.

"Fast reflexes," the vampire said and I thought our cover was blown. "A nice quality." He twirled my red hair in his fingers. I resisted punching him in the face. "Name's Javier, what's your name, lovely?"

I put of my best fake smile. "Clary, and this is my friend, Izzy. Javier is such a...strong name." Yeah, I sucked at flirting.

Javier smiled. "You haven't touched your champagne, is something wrong with it?"

I glanced at the glass. "No," I replied and downed it. Okay, maybe not such a great idea. Did the champagne have to be blood flavored?

He leaned in and for a second I thought he was going to bite my neck but he whispered in my ear instead. "How does the blood of a mundane taste on your lips, shadowhunter?" How had he known?

He pulled away and Izzy caught my gaze. "He knows," I told her. I turned to Javier. "How?"

He laughed. "You don't blend in as well as you think. But it was the names that gave you away." He turned and motioned for us to follow him. I glanced at my Parabatai before we went off after him.

Javier lead us into an empty bedroom and closed the door, locking it. "Clary and Izzy. Clarissa Morgenstern and Isabelle Lightwood I presume."

"How did you know?" Izzy questioned. I was wondering the same thing.

"I knew your parents. I knew you two as infants," Javier explained. "I was part of the Circle."

"You were nephilim?" I had heard that a few shadowhunters had become vampires but it was extremely rare.

"Yes." He nodded. "Hodge Starkweather was my name."

"Hodge? But you died. The list of the dead at the Institute..." Izzy trailed off.

He laughed. "Leave it to them to let everyone think I'm actually dead. No, I was simply turned into an vampire. Against my will if I might add. It's probably a good thing I'm not actually dead. Who else would tell you about Miles?" I presumed that Miles was the vampire who was killed.

"Tell us what you know," I demanded.

"How about we make a deal?"

"We don't make deals with downworlders, you should know that," I informed him.

"Ah yes, I do know. And perhaps if the Institute had accepted the vampires' deal I wouldn't have been turned," Javier said.

"What is it you want?" Izzy asked.

"My belongings from the Institute," he said simply. "They wouldn't give me anything after I turned. Knowing the Institute they probably just threw them in storage somewhere."

"If we promise to find your belongings you'll tell us what you know?" He nodded. "Fine, it's a deal then."

He smiled. "Perfect. I was the one who identified Miles' murderer as a shadowhunter. I was also the last one to see Miles alive. We were at Magnus Bane's party when Miles went out the door with some mundane. I followed them because Miles had a tendency to overindulged at times. I controlled him. But somehow I lost them. I couldn't find where they went. It wasn't until it was nearing sunrise that someone found Miles' body in that warehouse."

"You said he left with a mundane?" I questioned.

Javier nodded. "I now presume it was the shadowhunter who killed him. He was dressed in head to toe, runes could have easily been hidden."

"Did you see what they looked like? What they were wearing?" I was looking for anything that could prove Sebastian's innocence...or criminalize Jace.

"It was dark," Javier explained. "I couldn't see much. He was wearing black clothes with a hood. All I could see was blond hair." That...that could describe either Jace or Sebastian. Both were wearing dark clothes that night, and both had blond hair. I glanced at Izzy. I had to tell her about Jace. She wouldn't say anything...would she?

"That's not all," he said. "There was a note, left with the body. I took it before anyone else saw."

"A note? What did it say?"

He shook his head. "No, you get the note when you deliver my belongings, we had a deal." I hadn't actually been planning on giving him his belongings, how irritating.

"Fine," Izzy said. "We'll get them to you. How about tomorrow night? At the warehouse where Miles was found."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Javier smiled. "Now you two best run along. It won't be long before someone else realizes who you really are."

As we were walking out the door Izzy paused and looked at the vampire. "Hodge? My parents used to speak of you with praise. I don't think it was their decision to shun you."

"Thank you, Isabelle." She nodded and we left the room.

As we were weaving our way through the party towards the elevator Simon caught my eye. He was talking to some blonde. I nodded at him as we entered the elevator.

"Did your parents really speak about Hodge with praise?" I asked her as we begin to walk away from the hotel. I wasn't sure if she had been telling the truth or just being nice to him.

"Yeah, actually," she said. "Anytime someone would speak of fallen shadowhunters they always mentioned him. Why? Your dad never did? They were all friends."

I shook my head. "My dad...he didn't like to dwell on the past. After something happened he rarely mentioned it again."

"SHADOWHUNTERS!" A voice pierced the air and my Parabatai and I whipped around. The blonde vampire was standing across the street at the hotel with about half of the party's vampires behind her. Simon was no where to be seen. "You killed him! You killed Javier!"


	10. Chapter 10

My hand flew to my dagger hidden under my dress. I wasn't exactly equipped to fight a vampire but it would have to do.

I didn't understand though, Javier was alive and well when we left him. Someone must have snuck in there right after we left and killed him.

"We didn't kill Javier!" I shouted across the street, trying to buy time. I had seen Izzy dialing a number behind her back on her phone. "He was alive when we left! It must have been someone else."

"Liar!" The blonde vampire hissed. "He had one of your runes on his chest! Just like Miles!"

Then...the killer had been at the party. Izzy and I probably walked right past him and didn't realize.

"You won't live to see this end of this night, shadowhunters!" The vampire threatened. "Attack!" The horde of vampire immediately descended upon us.

Wordlessly, Izzy and I turned and ran in the other direction. We weren't generally afraid to fight vampires, but there was just way too many of them for the two of us to take on alone.

"Clary," Izzy breathed and tossed me a wooden stake. I noticed that she also held one. She must have been hiding them under her dress or in her purse. Probably smarter than a dagger.

I could feel the vampires gaining on us, it wouldn't be long before we had to fight.

"Duck!" A voice shouted and Izzy and I did the sensible thing, we ducked. Half a second later a stake hurled over our heads, puncturing the front running vampire in the heart. As the vampire died the others halted.

As I got to my feet I noticed Jace standing before us. Of course, it had to be him. Izzy and I stood with him. The vampires had caught up now, there would be no more running away. The three of us would have to do.

Then, they charged. I struck the first one that lunged at me in the heart, ripping out the stake fast as another one came at me. I impaled that one as well.

"Where are Alec and Sebastian?" Izzy questioned Jace as she stabbed a vampire.

"On their way," he said as he threw a lighter at a vampire. It went up in flames and fortunately it was near two others and they lit up as well.

That was enough of a distraction to let us turn and run again. When Alec and Sebastian joined us, we would be able to take them.

Looking up ahead I noticed the institute wasn't far, a couple blocks at most. We were almost there. The vampires couldn't follow us inside and that also meant...

An arrow flew by me and pierced one of the vampires in the heart. Looking at the roof of the buildings I noticed Alec standing there with his bow.

"Clary!" Sebastian's voice shouted. My brother was running towards us. He held two blades in his hands, one shorter than the other.

I reached my hand out as he tossed me Heosphoros. I smiled as I gripped the hilt. Now we were talking.

The vampires descended upon us again and I slashed out at the nearest one with my blade. The vampire shrieked as the blade burned him. Heosphoros was an angelic blade, it burned vampires. It was enough to light the vampire up in flames.

"Clary!" Izzy shouted. She had lost her stake and was only fighting with her whip. Which was not doing her much good when faced with a horde of vampires.

She held a vampire off with her whip but another was descending fast upon her. I threw my last dagger and stake at the same time.

The silver dagger impaled itself in the vampire's shoulder. It wasn't the best shot I could have made but it served its purpose: distracting the vampire long enough for Izzy to kill him.

Izzy caught the stake and while the vampire was pulling out the dagger she stabbed him in the heart.

"Enough!" A voice shouted. The vampires all stopped. The five of us stopped as well, but we didn't put our weapons away, we were still ready.

Coming through the crowd was the blonde vampire from earlier. "You've killed enough of my kind, I'm putting a stop to this."

"What did you expect? You sent a horde after us. We're shadowhunters, of course we're going to fight," I told her.

"You have murdered two of mine in cold blood," the vampire replied. "I had every right to send my vampires after you."

"We didn't kill anybody!" I snapped. "Especially not Javier. He was helping us catch whoever killed Miles, giving us information."

"No? The two of you just happened to exit the same room that he was found dead in seconds later." Her reasoning did make a lot of sense...if I didn't know that Izzy and I didn't murder Javier. 

"It had to be someone else," Izzy backed me up. "Someone slipped into the room after we left. Or was already in there."

"Why should I believe you? What have you shadowhunters ever brought us than death?" I didn't really have an answer for the vampire. All we really did was kill them. "I knew I never should have entrusted you shadowhunters in finding this killer when he is obviously one of your own."

"If the killer is a shadowhunter then it is our business to handle," Jace spoke up. "They will be punished according to Clave law."

The blond vampire narrowed her eyes. She was probably wondering if crossing the Clave was worth it or not. "You have two days. Find the killer within two days and you Nephilim may punish him as you see fit. If not...I will take matters into my own hands." Without waiting for an answer she turned and left the way she came, taking the surviving vampires with her. A few hissed at us as they passed but all followed.

I looked to the bodies of the fallen vampires, the ones who had not burned. I set to stabbing them with my blade. Burning the bodies was a lot easier than moving and burying them.

When I was finished I looked to Jace, he was lighting the last vampire with a seraph blade. Questions burned in my mind. The one at the forefront being, how had he gotten there so fast? He obviously hadn't been at the Institute like Alec and Sebastian were otherwise he would have arrived at the same time as them. Was he the one that killed Javier? Did he really kill Miles? Javier did say blond hair and a hood....Jace's jacket had a hood. It could just be coincidence but after my conversation with Sebastian I wasn't so sure.

"Who's checking who out now?" Jace smirked. I wanted to throw my other dagger at him but then remembered I had thrown it at the vampire in the fight.

"I'm not checking you out," I told him. "I was just wondering how you got there so fast."

Jace shrugged. "I was in the neighborhood when Izzy called. I tracked Izzy's phone and then called Alec for backup." I caught Sebastian's eye. He didn't seem convinced either. I knew he still suspected Jace.

"I think you all owe me an apology," my brother spoke up. "Obviously I didn't kill this Javier, ask Alec, I was at the Institute."

"I'm sorry, Sebastian, we never should have doubted you." I was happy when Izzy was the first to speak. Finally, she was backing me up in this.

Alec mumbled some sort of an apology but Jace remained silent until Izzy nudged him. "Fine, whatever, I'm sorry."

I simply smiled at Sebastian happy I didn't have to pretend to the others that I suspected him anymore. "Clary...aren't you going to apologize to your brother? I mean he is your own flesh and blood?" Jace commented...and I was caught. "Wait, you told him didn't you?"

"I-"

"I can't believe you!" He shouted. "We had a deal!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Sebastian asked confused. And of course he was, I had never told him we were only pretending to suspect him, as far as he knew I had really thought he was the murderer.

"Obviously we need to talk about whatever this is," Alec pointed out. "I know a place we can go, somewhere we won't be overheard."


	11. Chapter 11

I wasn't surprised when Alec knocked on the door of Magnus Bane's loft. I guess a part of me knew this was where Alec was taking us, and also where he had been disappearing to.

"Alexander!" The High Warlock of Brooklyn exclaimed as he opened the door. His expression changed when he noticed the other four of us. "And you brought friends."

"Sorry Magnus but we needed somewhere where we could talk without being overhead," Alec said.

"This isn't the wayward home for Shadowhunters," Magnus sighed but stepped aside and let us in.

Jace mumbled something to his Parabatai but Alec brushed him off.

Magnus stopped us before we stopped on the carpet. "Shoes off, the five of you have so much blood and gore on you the least you can do is not to get it on my carpet," he demanded. "And don't sit down, anywhere."

I pulled the heels off my aching feet and sighed in relief. It felt good to have them off.

The warlock began to walk out of the room. "I know better than to get involved in shadowhunter business," he said. "I'll be feeding my cat." With that he was out of the room.

"Whats going on?" Sebastian asked.

Jace opened his mouth to explain but I cut him off. Sebastian was my brother, I should be the one to do this even if it was Jace's plan. "We devised a plan to make you think that we thought you killed the vampire. None of us ever thought you were the murderer."

"What?" He said in disbelief. "Why would you do that?" I looked at Jace, now it was his turn to speak.

"To throw the actual murderer off, to make him think that we had already caught you and weren't looking for him any longer," Jace explained.

"So you don't have any actual idea who the murderer is do you?" Sebastian asked. I could tell he was still angry but he was hiding it. I gave him a stern look, now was not the time to accuse Jace. 

"How about one of the Ascended?" Jace asked.

Sebastian sighed. "We've already cleared them all, and besides they were all training with me at the Institute before you called, they couldn't have killed Javier."

"Clary," Izzy said to me. "What Javier said..."

"The note!" I exclaimed.

"What note?" Jace asked.

"Javier told us there was a note with the body, that he hid it. If we did a favor for him he would give us the note," I explained. I had completely forgotten. But it didn't matter now, Javier was dead.

"What was the favor?" Jace questioned. Did it really matter now?

"He wanted us to get his stuff from the Institute," Izzy explained. "He used to be a shadowhunter, Hodge Starkweather."

"Hodge?" Alec questioned having heard the name before. Izzy nodded.

"It doesn't matter anymore," I said. "Hodge, Javier, whoever is dead. We're not getting that note."

"Sure we are," Jace said with confidence. "We just have to find out where he lived, it's probably there somewhere."

"How do we know he hid the note at his place? He could have hidden it anywhere."

"We have to start somewhere." Jace shrugged.

"Guys, we're all ignoring a very obvious question here: why was Javier killed?" Sebastian pointed out.

"Why were Miles and the other fledglings killed?" Alec added. "We still don't know the reason for those kills either."

"The killer could have just been looking for an easy vampire to pick off," Izzy suggested. "Javier told us that he saw Miles leave with some boy. It's very possible the killer is the boy."

"Then we need to find that guy," Jace decided. "Did Javier give you any details?"

"He was wearing all black with a hood," I said.

"And blond hair," Izzy added.

"Sounds a whole lot like Sebastian," Jace decided.

"Sounds a whole lot like you," Sebastian retorted back. I realized that my brother wasn't accusing Jace, he was just making a point. "Anybody could be the blond in the hood, that doesn't exactly narrow it down."

"It does, actually," Alec said. "No one else is a blond at the institute so no one there could have done it."

"But to hide the vampire fangs in Sebastian's room they would have to be a shadowhunter in order to entire the Institute, or at least uninvited," I pointed out.

"This is going nowhere," Izzy sighed. "We just keep going round in circles."

"I might be able to help," Magnus announced strolling back into the room.

"I thought you didn't get involved in shadowhunter business," Jace remarked.

"For the right price I will," the warlock said. "I know the location of Javeir's apartment."

"What do you want?"

"An afternoon with Alec." Magnus was smiling.

"Why do you always need my Parabatai?" Jace questioned.

"Virgin shadowhunter blood, I told you." 

"Take Clary then, she's never had a boy-" In an instant I had my sword at Jace's throat. That got him to shut up.

"Complete that sentence and it'll be the last thing you say," I warned him.

"Ah, young love," Magnus sighed. I relaxed my grip for a second and it allowed Jace to take a couple steps back. "But still no killing in my house."

"Guys stop," Alec said. "I'll do it, whatever."

"Perfect," Magnus was smiling again. He conjured a piece of paper out of thin air. As I took it from his hands he said, "I expect to see you tomorrow afternoon." He was looking at Alec.

When we were leaving Magnus' loft I decided to not even put my heels back on. My feet still ached and I knew putting them on would only worsen the feeling.

As my feet touched the sidewalk I felt something pierce the bottom of my foot, a piece of glass. I winced slightly as I pulled it out.

"Clary!" Izzy exclaimed cause the others to stop walking.

"I'm fine," I told her. It was just a little cut, I would be alright until we got back to the Institute.

"You should have put your shoes back on," she told me as she pulled her stele out of her bag.

"They hurt my feet," I admitted. "I don't know how you're still wearing yours."

The pain subsided as she drew an iratez on my feet. "Beauty is pain," she said. "There, now put your shoes back on before you step on anything else."

"I can't believe you just needed an iratez on your feet," Jace mocked.

I was in the process of buckling on one the heels so I held the other one up towards him heel first. "Do you wanna wear these and try? Or maybe I should just shove this up your ass instead." 

"Aright guys, jeeze, calm down," Alec mediated.

I begrudgingly put the heel that should be up Jace's ass on then Izzy and I followed after the others.

The five of us had decided to check out Javier's apartment in the morning. It was late and we all needed to get cleaned up and rest. Time was of the essence but we wouldn't be any good investigating if we fell asleep on our feet from exhaustion.

***

I was towel drying my hair the next morning when there was a knock at my door. "Come in!" I shouted.

Sebastian entered my room, closing the door behind him. Looking at him, I knew what this was going to be about.

"The evidence keeps piling up around Jace," he said quietly. "Blond, hooded, and he was already out last night."

"We need to keep our minds open," I told him. "It still might not be him, and if we just accuse him we'll probably miss important details or misanalyze evidence."

"I know, Clary," he said. "But you still agree with me? There's a big chance that it's Jace?"

I nodded. I would suspect Jace until his innocence was proven, he was too shady and there were too many coincidences with him.

Sebastian lingered in my room. "What?" I asked.

"Did Mom talk to you?" He asked, I nodded. Apparently our mom had had the same talk with him. "She's leaving tomorrow."

"I know. It'll be weird not having her here," I said. But maybe it was for the better; we were wrapped up in this investigation and I don't think I would have the heart to lie to her if she asked what was going on. Izzy and Alec were already lying to their parents and Izzy told me it was hard. 

"She doesn't trust me to teach the Ascended in Idris," Sebastian said.

"She told you that?"

"No, but it was between the lines."

"Sebastian, you're just too young. Mom thought you needed more experience before you took over what Dad did." That's what Mom had told me anyway.

"Dad didn't think I was too young," he argued. "He wanted me to start working with him when I turned 18, as a partner." I hadn't know that, no one had ever mentioned it to me.

"Mom isn't Dad-"

"Exactly, that's why she needs me to help her." It seemed like Sebastian had made up his mind.

"Sebastian, you're needed here," I told him. "I need you here." The two of us had always been together, with Mom leaving I wasn't sure if I would take Sebastian's absence as well.

He sighed and I knew that I had won. "Fine, Clary, I'll stay here. But as soon as we figure all this out...no promises."

If that was all I was going to get I would take it. "Alright then."

"Clary!" Izzy's voice shouted before my Parabatai entered the room. "We have to go! Alec and Jace left already!"

"What!" I shouted. I glanced to my side table where the piece of paper with the address had been last night. It was gone. One of the others must've came in my room last night and taken it. Luckily, I had committed it to memory.

Throwing my damp hair in a pony tail I shoved my feet into my boots before Sebastian and I ran after Izzy out of the Institute. There was no way I was going to let Jace get there first, because a part of me felt like he was going to sabotage the evidence.


	12. Chapter 12

"How long ago did they leave?" I asked Izzy as we climbed into the car. Apparently Jace didn't know how to drive so him and Alec had elected to walk there.

"Like thirty minutes ago!" She started up the engine and started driving away from the institute. "Alec and I were having breakfast in the kitchen when Jace came in saying he needed my brother for something. I tried looking for them when I was finished eating but I found my mom instead and she said they had already left."

"Why would they leave without us? It doesn't make sense," I wondered.

"Jace likes to take the lead on things," Izzy told me. "He probably just wants to find the note first to rub it in all of our faces."

"There might be an-" Sebastian started but I screamed at Izzy. She had just ran a red light. 

I held onto the handle bar. "Izzy, getting us pulled over or killed isn't going to get us there any faster."

"Yeah, yeah," she said but I don't think she was really listening to me.

I held on for dear life until we reached the apartment complex that the address led us to.

And I climbed out of the car I noticed a familiar blond about to enter the building. "Jace!" I shouted.

He stopped and started making his way over to us. Alec followed.

"Why the hell would you leave without us?" I asked him. I wanted to hear what his explanation was.

Jace shrugged. "You guys were taking too long to get ready. I didn't want to wait."

"You know we all agreed to leave at 10 not 830 in the morning," I informed him.

"Yeah well, the early bird catches the worm, or in this case the note," he said.

"Come on guys," Alec intervened. "Let's go inside. Bickering out here isn't going to help anything."

Oh Alec, he was always the mediator between us. I'm sure if he wasn't here I probably would have killed Jace by now. 

The five of us made our way into the building and up to the second floor where Javier's apartment was located.

I tried the knob on Javier's unit. It was locked, of course. Making sure there was no one else in the hall, I drew an opening rune in the door. The lock clicked open and the five of us quickly entered.

The apartment was pitch black. I found a light switch and turned it on. The windows had been blacked out, that's why we couldn't see. I realized that the apartment was also a mess. Clothes, empty blood bags, and trash littered the floor.

"How are we ever going to find anything in this mess?" Sebastian wondered. "The note could be anywhere."

"Then we search everywhere," I told them. "Izzy and I will take the bedroom." The two of us left the rest of the apartment up to the boys.

Ironically, the bedroom wasn't as messy. There were only some clothes on the grand and an unmade bed.

The two of us began to move through the room, opening drawers and looking inside the pockets of his jeans. I threw the already looked through clothes into a pile when I was done with them so we wouldn't get them mixed up.

Izzy and I had almost gone through the entire room and came up with nothing. From the sound of it, it didn't seem like the others were having much luck either.

Suddenly, I had an idea. I walked over to the bed and lifted up the mattress. "Izzy!" I called as I noticed a piece of paper hidden underneath it. She fetched the note and I let the mattress fall back onto the boxspring.

When I looked at my Parabatai I noticed her face had gone white. "Izzy? What is it?" Instead of speaking she handed me the note.

I nearly dropped it when I saw what was written:

The Morning Stars

Will go out...

One by one

There was no signature just the words and the same angelic rune from Miles' body drawn below. 

Morning Star...that was what Morgenstern meant. And this cryptic note just after my father...it had to be connected.

"Clary-" Izzy started but I shook my head and walked out of the room. I found Sebastian going through the kitchen cabinets and handed him the note.

"No," he tried to laugh it off. "This is a joke, it has to be." His train of thought was the same as my own. "But Mom said Dad's death was an accident. A hunt gone wrong."

"Mom lied," I told him. "Our father was murdered. Murdered by the same person who's been killing these vampires."

"What are you guys talking about?" Jace asked. Sebastian reluctantly handed him the note. Alec leaned over his parabatai's shoulder to read it.

"I don't see how this has anything to do with you two and your father," Jace said.

"Jace, you may be my Parabatai but you're an idiot," Alec told him. "Morgenstern means Morning Star." He took the note out of the blond's grasp and handed it back to me.

"So this person, whoever they are, is gunning for you two?" Jace asked.

"Seems so," I said. I couldn't understand why. Our family didn't have enemies. We helped Ascended, we trained new shadowhunters. Who would want to stop that?

"It makes sense that they would hide the vampire fangs in Sebastian's room then," Alec put two and two together. "Trying to frame him."

"And killing Javier and trying to frame me," I said. It made sense now. The killer hadn't wanted to stop us from finding the note, he just wanted the vampires to turn against us. Maybe have them do the dirty work for him.

"But why, why frame us? Why target our family in the first place," Sebastian wondered.

"I don't know," I said, feeling the fire flame up inside me. "But what I do know is that Mom lied to us and I intend to find out why." I shoved the note in my pocket and made my way out the door.

I was halfway to the door leading stairwell when one of other apartment's door opened. Out stepped a blue eyed boy with brown hair. "What were you doing in Javier's apartment?" He said. 

"We're his friends," I lied. "He asked us to pick something up for him."

"Javier doesn't have friends," the boy said. "And he never brings anyone home." This neighbor was getting annoying. I was beginning to regret that we hadn't glamoured ourselves. "Tell me who you are!" I realized he was holding a knife out at me.

"Who are you?" I retorted back. A concerned neighbor would not go to these lengths. The knife didn't scare me. I could disarm him before he moved a muscle.

"I don't think you're in the position to be asking these questions," he said referring to the knife. Was he really so dumb to realize there was five of us versus him?

I sighed and disarmed him of the knife hitting him in the nose with the hilt of it for good measure. "Let's go," I told the others.

"Clary!" Izzy exclaimed.

"What? He was annoying and I didn't have time for that."

"I'm calling the cops!" The boy shouted as we entered the stairway. Let him. The cops couldn't do anything to us.

"I'm so glad that you were there to disarm that situation Clarissa you sure handled it with poise and grace on a mundie," Jace snarked at me as we were leaving the building.

"Honestly you can go fuck a stick, Jonathon, and I recommend you go do that before I shove one up your ass for you," I retorted, I swear I was actually going to kill him someday.

"Well that's kinky," he threw a wink my way then did the smartest thing he has ever done and left as the rest of us got in the car claiming running would do him good and he couldn't afford to be lazy like the rest of us.

***

"Mom!" I shouted as soon as I entered the Institute. I began going from room to room, Sebastian following me. I had wanted Izzy to come with, she was my Parabatai after all, but she said this was a family matter. Something I needed to deal with alone.

I finally found her in the sitting room talking with Maryse. "Mom!" I shouted. Something in my eyes must have made the head of the Institute realize that we needed privacy because she quietly excused herself and left the room.

"Clary, we were talking ab-"

"Why did you lie to us? Why didn't you tell us that Dad was murdered?!" I was furious. I had the right to know.

"How did you find out? Jace told you didn't he?" She sighed. Jace knew? Why on earth did Jace know.

"What? Why would you tell Jace and not tell your own children that their father was murdered," I spat.

"Jace overheard Maryse and I talking about it," my mom admitted. "I asked him not to mention anything. If Jace didn't tell you how did you find out?"

"It doesn't matter how we found out!" Sebastian shouted. "What matters is that you lied to us. You made us believe that Dad was killed in the line of duty, a noble shadowhunter death, not murdered in cold blood."

My mom sighed and motioned for us to sit down. We didn't budge; I crossed my arms. "I was trying to protect you two," she told us. "I'm sure you remember that day."

I remembered that day perfectly. Izzy had came out the night before and the three of us work up early in the morning to spend the day in Alicante. We went shopping, met some friends, and had lunch and dinner out. We hadn't returned home until late. That was when Mom told us what had happened: Dad went out on a mission. It went wrong. He was killed. I had never gotten to say goodbye. He was still sleeping when we left that morning.

"I was gone most of the day, I was visiting the Penhallows," Mom said. "And when I came home I found your father. There was no trail, no clues to who had done it. I decided it was best to fabricate the truth to you two instead of have you wonder who killed him for the rest of your lives."

"You had no right!" I told her. "He's our father. We deserved to know the truth." Now that I knew he was killed inside the house, I knew it was definitely a shadowhunter who had done all this. Our house was completely warded. No downworlder or demon could enter.

"I'm sorry, Clary, Sebastian," she said. "I really am. You'll understand one day, when you're a parent you do what you think is the right thing for your children."

"Well it wasn't the right thing," I retorted before turning and walking out of the room. Sebastian was on my heels after me. I didn't care that she was leaving tomorrow anymore, I didn't care that she would leave with this sour mood between the three of us. It was her fault.

I threw the training room door open. I had heard Jace mention to Alec that they should do some training once they got back. Sure enough, they were practicing with seraph blades.

The two boys looked at us as we entered. Without warning I lashed out and kicked Jace square in the chest. He wasn't expecting it and fell to the ground where I pinned him. In my hand I was still clutching the knife from Javier's neighbor.

"Kinky," Jace had the nerve to say. Again. "I didn't think you were this type of girl Clarissa." I gripped the dagger and punched him in the face.

"Ow!" Jace yelled. "What was that for? You're going to ruin my face. Wait! Alec! Where are you going!" He struggled to get up but I held him down.

"I don't know what you did Jace, but you're on your own." Alec left the room. It was just the three of us now.

I gripped his shirt tighter. "You knew about our father being murdered. You knew and you didn't tell us."

"I was trying to protect you," Jace said. I stood up off of him, letting him get up.

"Why is everyone trying to protect us?" I was sick and tired of it. We were trained shadowhunters, we could protect ourselves.

"I think a crazy murderer trying to kill your family is reason enough," Jace figured.

"You found that out today and besides that would be even more reason to tell us," I pointed out. "Why have you been lying to us for days?"

Jace sighed. "I didn't want you two to experience what I had to." Was Jace Herondale actually showing compassion? Was I dreaming?

"Your parents died in a fire. They weren't exactly murdered." Everyone knew the story, the Herondale manor had gone up in flames. Jace was the only survivor.

"It was arson. Somebody deliberately set it on fire. That's what the public doesn't know," Jace said.

Three murders in Idris? Could this be a coincidence?


	13. Chapter 13

"Clary!" Izzy was calling my name. I ignored her, I was ignoring everybody. I was taking my emotions out by sketching before I went and killed somebody, preferably Jace. Although I'm not too sure that would be a bad thing.

My Parabatai barged into my room. "Clary! I've been calling you for like five minutes."

"I heard," I said as I scratched the pencil across the paper.

Before I could protest, Izzy took the sketch pad and pencil out of my hands. "What's going on with you? You don't do this, not to me."

I sighed. "Gee, I don't know Izzy. I mean I just found out my father has been murdered and not only did my mother keep it a secret, no, Jace heard apparently and didn't tell me the truth either."

She sat down on the bed next to me. "Why does that make you so upset?"

"Because everybody's excuse is that they're trying to protect me. I don't want to be protected, I don't need to be protected. I can protect myself."

"Clary...I hate to point out the obvious but your father was murdered. The same person is going after you and your brother. You know your father was much more skilled them you. What makes you think that you can take this killer when your father couldn't?" Izzy asked. And then I realized something, she was scared for me. She was scared that something would happen to me.

"Izzy, you're not going to lose me," I promised her.

"You don't know that," she said. "I can see the grief my dad feels when he looks at his faded Parabatai rune. If that became me I don't think I could survive it."

"Izzy," I started and grasped her hands. "You're strong. Probably a lot stronger then me. Don't you ever say things like that. I'm not going to die. We're going to find this bastard and turn him over to the Clave." I wanted nothing more than to kill him. But that wouldn't solve anything; no, he had to be put on trial in front of the Clave.

Izzy gripped my hands. I noticed that her eyes were watery. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen Izzy cry.

"You two are so sappy," a voice sighed entering the room. I hadn't realized Izzy left the door open.

"Izzy can I please have my pencil back so I can kill Jace with it?"

"You know normally I would try to stop you but this time I agree." Izzy handed me back my pencil.

Jace held up his hands. "Woah! I think you've wounded me enough today."

Izzy suddenly started laughing. "Wait, you did that Clary?" She asked referring to Jace's black eye. "I love you so much more."

I grinned at Izzy. It had felt good punching Jace earlier. I turned to the blonde. "What do you want?"

"We're going to Magnus' house. Alec thinks that he might be able to do a spell that can tell us who wrote the note," Jace explained.

"Why are you telling us?" Last time he left without us.

"For one you have the note," Jace pointed out. I realized that it was still folded up inside my pocket. "And two Alec won't let me leave without the two of you."

I got off my bed and crossed the room towards Jace and the door. "Wow, Alec really has you whipped, doesn't he?" I snickered as I passed him. I could hear my parabatai's laugh and for once Jace didn't have some snarky comeback.

***

The four of us made our way to Magnus Bane's loft once again. Sebastian wasn't with us. He had to train the Ascended.

"Why are we always coming here?" I wondered aloud to Izzy. Alec and Jace were walking up ahead.

"He's the only warlock in Brooklyn," Izzy said. "We need him.."

"Izzy," I said. She seemed to be holding something back.

"I'll tell you when we get home," she promised. I sighed, that was all I was going to get out of her for now.

We rounded the corner and climbed the steps to Magnus' loft. Alec had called him before we left so he was actually expecting us this time.

As always, Magnus seemed most excited to see Alec but far less enthusiastic to see the rest of us. Nonetheless, he waved us inside.

"You shadowhunters seem to me taking me for granted," the warlock started. "I'll require payment for this."

"I thought Alec's virgin shadowhunter blood was enough? If you need more Clar-" I stomped Jace's foot with my boot. That got him to shut up.

"No, the payment I require is a play date with Alexander." Seeing the confusion of our faces he cleared his throat. "I mean I want Alec to bring your cat for a play date with Chairman Meow. Church is it?"

"Done," I said before anybody else could speak. Yeah, I hated throwing Alec to the wolves, or the warlock in this case, all the time but he didn't really seem to mind.

Magnus grinned. "Perfect, now where is this note? I'll do what I can."

I fished the note out of my pocket and handed it to Magnus. "Do what you can? You said you could tell us who wrote the note," Jace argued.

"I told Alec that I might be able to tell him who wrote the note," Magnus clarified. "Magic is a tricky business. You don't always get the results you desire."

Jace grumbled as the warlock read the words on the note. He glanced at me when he was done. "Someone really has it out for your family don't they?"

"Yeah well they've already murdered my father so I would appreciate it if you could just tell us about the note," I snapped. I didn't want to talk about that any longer.

"You're feisty," Magnus noted. "I like you." He inspected the note before handing it back to me. "I can't tell you much. But what I can tell you is that the rune on that page is older than the writing, much older. And it looks like it was ripped from a notebook."

"That's all you can tell us?" Alec questioned.

"It's hard to tell anything else. Perhaps if it was written with some magical ink, sent through a fire message, or even in the presence of a magical object when written it would be easier to tell you more. But there's simply nothing else to tell about that note," Magnus explained.

"Thanks for trying Magnus," I told him folding the note back up and slipping it inside my pocket.

I felt something scrape across my leg and I glanced down to see a cat rubbing it's head against it. I bent down and scratched the cat behind its ears. Chairman Meow - I presumed - purred.

"I'll say this only because Chairman Meow has taken a liking to you," Magnus started. "You should be careful. They've been able to kill dozens of vampires already without being detected. And your father who I heard was a great shadowhunter."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of Clarissa here," Jace had the nerve to say.

Instead of retorting I turned to Izzy. "Can I borrow your whip? I need to tie Jace up and throw him in the ocean."

"You wanna tie me up?" Jace winked. "Kinky."

Fed up, I shoved the Herondale roughly into the wall. A painting almost fell off. "Watch it!" Magnus shouted. "It costs more than all the treasures in the institute!"

"Getting rough are we? I'm down for it." He was smirking that perfect smile that made me want to punch all of his perfect little teeth out.

"Stop antagonizing me!" I shouted at him. "I have enough crap to deal with without you making sarcastic comments!"

"I live to annoy you," Jace pushed. "You're such an easy target, Clarissa."

My mind flashed back to a day many years ago when my father had said the exact same words to me...

"You're such an easy target, Clarissa!" My father reprimanded. "You must always be on guard! One day I might not be there to protect you. You have to be able to stand on your own."

I pulled out my blade and pointed it towards Jace. "Shut up!" 

"Clary," my Parabatai said softly, I only half heard her.

I gripped the hilt with my hand. And then...the blade was gone. It disappeared.

"This is a tad heavier then I thought it was going to be," Magnus noticed. I turned towards him, he was holding my blade in his hands. "No killing in my house remember?"

I lunged towards Magnus. "Give it back!" No one took Heosphoros from me. One again the blade disappeared.

"You can have it back when I say so," Magnus said. "Maybe if you had asked nicely I would have given it back."

I wanted to attack Magnus. I need Heosphoros back. But I didn't have any weapons and even if I did they wouldn't so much against a warlock.

"It's just a blade isn't it? Perhaps a little more ornamental than most but I'm sure you have loads at the Institute," Magnus assumed. He didn't know, he didn't know how much that sword meant to me.

Sighing defiantly I turned and walked out of his loft. Here I was thinking Magnus was different. But no, he was a warlock, one who liked to trick and deceive. Who knows if he was even telling the truth about the note?

"Clary!" A voice shouted. I didn't need to turn to see that it was Izzy running towards me. She pressed the hilt of a blade into my hands. "I got it back, I explained to Magnus-"

I sheathed the blade. "Thanks Izzy," I said. I glanced at her. She looked like she wanted to say something. "What?"

"What happened in there Clary?" She questioned. "You were almost like a different person."

I laughed slightly. "Really? I was just playing around. I would never actually hurt Jace. Besides a punch or something." 

Isabelle shook her head. "Clary, I could feel it. You wanted to hurt Jace and you would have had Magnus not stopped you." 

"Whatever." I waved my hand at her.

"Hey!" Izzy shouted and grabbed my wrist, stopping me from walking. "I know you've been through so much crap in the last month, too much for anyone to deal with but I'm your Parabatai! I know you better than you know yourself Clary. Something is the matter with you and I don't see why you can't just talk to me about it."

I ripped my wrist from her grasp. "I'm fine Izzy! By the Angel! Just leave me alone for once!" I started walking faster back towards the institute. Izzy didn't follow.


	14. Chapter 14

_"Clary!" A voice shouted to me. "Clary, wake up!" I opened my eyes to see my brother standing before me. His green eyes were wide and boyish. His hair was long, longer than I had seen it in a long time. Sebastian was seven, I knew because that was the year he wouldn't let my mother cut his hair. "Father's home!"_

_I remembered this. Father had left on a mission a week ago. I didn't know what it entailed, I was only six at the time. He returned in the middle of the night; Sebastian had been the first of us to find out he was home; he had tried to climb into our mother's bed after a nightmare only to find our Father sleeping there as well._

_I jumped out of bed and followed my brother as we ran into the kitchen where my parents had now gotten up and were beginning to make breakfast together._

_"Daddy!" I squealed as I ran towards him. He knelt down and I flung myself into his arms._

_"Clarissa." He smiled as he held me close._

_"I missed you, Daddy," I said. As a little girl I was so attached to my father._

_He kissed my forehead. "I missed you too, Clarissa. You've been a good girl for your mother, haven't you?" I nodded excitedly. I knew what was coming._

_I stood back from my father as he stood up to rummage through his bag on the counter. He handed Sebastian and I both a box. Our father always brought back presents for the two of us when he went on extended missions._

_Sebastian opened his first. Inside was a book, a big, fresh new book. "Wow," my brother said in amazement. It was a book on heroes of all kinds, mythological ones like King Arthur and real mundanes as well. Sebastian had a fascination with heroes when he was a child._

_Inside my box was another small porcelain box. Carefully, I opened it and a soft chime of music came out. Closing the box, I found that the music stopped. I opened it again to let the entire tune play._

_"It's what mundanes call a music box," my father explained. The music stopped. "Just turn the dial on the side here and-" he turned it a couple of times and the music began again._

_"Thank you, Daddy!" I exclaimed. It had to have been my favorite thing my father ever bought for me._

_There was a knock at the door. My mother opened it to find little Isabelle standing there. "Clary! Sebastian!" Her child-like voice squeaked. "Are you ready to go?"_

_I was confused, this isn't what happened that day. The four of us had spent the day together, Izzy had never shown up._

_I set the music box down on the counter and looked to my mother as she spoke. She suddenly looked ten years older. "Of course! You three were going to Alicante today weren't you?"_

_"That's right!" Izzy said. I looked at her. She was sixteen again. "We're meeting Mark and Helen, they're visiting relatives."_

_"Well have fun you three," my mom ushered us out the door. I barely even had a chance to glance at my father as the door shut behind me._

_I turned and reopened the door, suddenly finding it dark inside the house. It was nighttime now. I turned on the lights and screamed._

_My father lay dead and bloody on the floor. I backed up into somebody. Turning, I noticed it was Izzy._

_"The Morning Stars will go out...one by one," she said. But it wasn't her voice. It was a deep, dark voice. Almost one of a demon. Her lips curled into a wicked smile. "One down, three to go."_

_Suddenly there was a knife in her hands. She stabbed Sebastian in the throat. Blood splattered, and he fell down, choking on his own blood. It was over in a few seconds._

_"Two," Izzy counted._

_I heard footsteps as my mother walked into the room. I wanted to scream at her to leave but no sound left my mouth._

_Izzy's whip curled around my mother's neck, choking her. With brutal strength, Isabelle flung my mother across the room. I heard a sickening crack and she hit the floor._

_"One left." Izzy was smiling. "Poor little girl, I thought you could protect yourself? How can you do that when you just let me kill your entire family?"_

_I had been screaming at myself to move but I stood frozen in the same place. I couldn't even scream._

_Izzy walked up to me a whispered in my ear with the dark, cold voice. "You're weak. Always have been, always will be. And that's why you're going to die." She plunged the bloody dagger into my chest._

I woke with a start in cold sweat. It was just a dream, a nightmare. It hadn't been the first since my father died but I had been the first in a few days at least.

I pulled my knees to my chest, expecting my door to open any second. Izzy always knew when something was wrong.

The longer I stared at my door, the longer it became evident that she wasn't coming. I regretted yelling at her, I had regretted it the second the words left my mouth. Izzy and I didn't fight. We were always on the same page. Since my father's death something had shifted between us.

I glanced at the clock. It was three am. But there was no way I was going back to sleep. A part of me felt like I would slip back into that nightmare.

I dressed and quietly made my way to the training room, using a witch stone as my guide. I closed the door behind me and began sparring with a punching bag.

I punched the bag wrong and cursed as pain flared in my hand.

"That looks like it hurts," a voice said from the doorway. He was lucky I had decided not to practice my dagger throwing.

"You don't want to mess with me right now," I warned him. I was not in the mood to talk to anyone, much less Jace Herondale. Why else was I sparring in the training room at 3am?

"I think I do," Jace pushed. "Messing with you is always fun."

"Leave me the fuck alone, Jace," I told him.

He was steadily making his way towards me so that now he was standing a few feet away. "What's wrong? Little girl had a bad dream?"

I threw my hand at him in a punch but he caught my wrist. I tried with my other hand and he caught that one as well.

"Clary," he said. I struggled to get my wrists out of his grasp. "Clary, stop."

I tasted salt and realized that I was crying. By the Angel, I just had to cry in front of Jace of all people. But I had reached my breaking point.

I was too weak to protest as Jace pulled me closer to him. Close enough that my tears wet the soft fabric of his shirt.

"I know what you're going through, Clary," he said softly. "I lost my parents too, I was alone. You feel alone but you have so many people. Your mom, Sebastian, Izzy. God, what I would have killed to have known Alec like I do now when I was ten. You have people that care about you. You just have to let him."

"I hate you," I told him.

"I know." I could practically feel him smirking. I pulled back a small amount, just enough that I could see the smirk on his face and I stared at his golden eyes. Then, they got closer and closer to me.

I didn't have time to comprehend anything because the next second Jace was kissing me. And for some reason I was kissing him back.


	15. Chapter 15

I was kissing Jace Herondale and I didn't know why. My brain wasn't working. All I knew was his lips were on mine, and his arms were holding me close.

I shifted my hand as it kneaded into his shirt. Pain flared and I remembered that I had hurt it hitting the punching bag.

The gears started turning in my head and I pulled away from Jace. "I-I can't do this," I announced. "Not with you." I shook my head before quickly exiting the room.

"Clary!" Jace called softly after me, careful not to wake the rest of the institute. But, I ignored him.

Somehow I found my way to my room in the dark, I had forgotten the witch light in the training room. I paused, glancing at Izzy's closed door but decided against it and entered my room.

I closed and locked the door behind me. I needed a cold shower.

***

Even though it was only 5am when I got out of the shower I found my Parabatai sitting on my bed. I forgot she had a key to my room.

"I'm sorry, Clary," she said even though she had nothing to apologize for. "I hate fighting with you."

I sat down on the bed next to her. "You have nothing to apologize for, Izzy," I told her. "This is all my fault. I've been lashing out, I know. I'm sorry. Even everything that's happened doesn't give me the excuse to treat you like I have been. You're my Parabatai, always and forever."

Izzy smiled. "I'm glad to see you've come to your senses. Did a good night's sleep do all that?"

I wasn't planning on telling her about anything, about the nightmare or about Jace...but she was my Parabatai.

"Jace actually did," I told her.

"Jace?" She questioned. "Since when are you having midnight rendezvous with Jace?"

"He kissed me," I blurted out.

Izzy started at me. She didn't speak, just stared. She seemed to be in shock. In all honesty if someone would have told me yesterday that I was going to kiss Jace back I would have called them crazy.

I waved my hand in front of her face. "Izzy!"

"Sorry," she said. "Just...uhm. I mean I love Jace and all, he's like a brother to me, but you hate him."

"I know," I explained. I didn't even know why I kissed him back in the first place.

Izzy shook her head. "You're confusing, Clary."

"I'm confused myself," I admitted.

"So how was it?" Izzy questioned.

"How was what?"

Izzy stared at me for a second. I stared back. "God, the kiss, Clary; how was the kiss?"

I felt my cheeks turn pink. "Oh...well..."

"Nu-uh, you're not getting out of this! It was your first kiss, I want to hear all about it," she demanded.

"You just told me Jace is like your brother. It'd weird to be telling you," I told her. It was like telling me about a kiss with Sebastian.

"Like my brother, he isn't actually so it's not that weird." Izzy shrugged. "It'd only be awkward if you told me about a kiss with Alec, cause one gross and two that would just never happen."

"Geez Izzy, I mean I'm not exactly the type of girl who goes around kissing every boy I see but it's nice to know that Alec is out of my league."

Izzy started laughing. I stared at her. What was she laughing about? "Clary! No, you can have any guy you want, no one's too good for you. If anything you're too good for any guy."

"Then what's the problem?" I asked. It wasn't like I wanted to kiss Alec anyway. He had practically been like another brother to me my entire life. But, I wanted to know what caused Izzy to make a comment like that.

"Clary...Alec's gay, you know that right?"

"What?!" I exclaimed a little too loudly. I mean, I had had my suspicions but I never knew for sure. "Since when?"

"Since always I guess." Izzy shrugged again. "I mean he's never told me flat out that he's gay but it's pretty obvious."

Thinking about it, it was very plain to see that Alec was gay. He had never shown an interest in any girl I had ever seen. And then there was that one magazine I saw when he visited once...

"And I'm pretty sure he's seeing Magnus," she told me.

"Now that one I believe. No warlock needs that much virgin shadowhunter blood, if that is even a thing because it sounds like a lie."

Izzy smirked. "I think that ship sailed anyhow."

"Geez, okay I didn't really need to know that Alec lost his virginity, that's okay," I sighed. "Like I wouldn't want to know when Sebastian loses his either."

Izzy blinked. I could tell that there was something she wasn't telling me. I stared at her with a knowing look. "You know Sebastian isn't a virgin, right?"

"Wait, what? When? How?" I realize I had just said I didn't want to know but a part of me was mad that I was left out of the loop on things.

"Like six months ago, I don't know," Izzy told me. "Do you really think he was going to tell his little sister about it? Like, Alec wouldn't tell me, I know. But Sebastian needed someone to talk to and I was there."

"It's just...so weird," I paused. "Okay new subject please. I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Today's the last day to find the killer," Izzy pointed out. "The vampire said two days. Yesterday was one and if we don't find the vampire by midnight tonight..."

"The vampires will take it into their own hands. They'll kill any shadowhunter they see for revenge," I finished for her. It would be a bloodbath.

Izzy sighed. "What are we going to do? We're no closer to finding the killer then we were two days ago."

"Maybe..." I paused for a second. "Maybe we should talk to your parents about Hodge. Maybe they know something that can help us. It's a shot in the dark, I know but it's all we got right now."

Izzy shook her head. "I've got something better. His death report. It should list everything about him, and the specific circumstances of his death. Maybe there's something in there. There's only one problem...it's under lock and key in my Dad's office. We can't get to it. And if we're trying to keep this whole thing under wraps we can't ask my Dad for it."

I sighed. "Unfortunately I think I know somebody who can help."

***

I paced back and forth in my room, waiting. Izzy stared at me.

"Clary, stop pacing, it's giving me anxiety," she sighed.

I paused. "Sorry, it's just, he's been gone for too long."

"How did you even know Jace would be able to steal the report?"

"I don't know what you know but his parent's death wasn't an accident," I told her. "It was arson. They wouldn't have told a ten-year-old boy that. He would have had to steal his parent's report in the first place in order to know."

"That...that makes sense." Izzy nodded.

My door suddenly opened and Jace slipped into the room. I hated that my eyes slipped to his lips. It was there first time I had seen him since we kissed. I had made Izzy go and tell him to get Hodge's death report.

"Almost got caught my Robert," Jace announced closing the door and locking it behind him. "But I got it." He held up a manila folder.

We locked eyes for a second as he handed it to me. I turned my gaze towards the folder. I began reading about the night of his death.

"All lies..." Izzy mumbled over my shoulder. "Everything my parents told me about Hodge's death were all lies."

The folder suddenly fell from my hands. I knew how to find out who the killer was, I just needed to find Hodge's things.


	16. Chapter 16

"Clary!" Izzy and Jace were calling my name and running after me.

I only stopped because I realized I didn't actually know where I was going. Where would Hodge's things be stored?

Izzy caught her breath as she caught up to me. "Where are you going?!"

"I actually don't know," I admitted. "Where would Hodge's stuff be at?"

"Why do you need Hodge's stuff?" Jace questioned. So he hadn't looked at the report. Only Izzy had been peering over my shoulder.

"The basement, come on!" Izzy exclaimed. She seemed to be catching on to my train of thought. 

Reaching the door of the basement the three of us descended down the steps into the darkness. Izzy found a light switch and light illuminated the room.

Boxes, boxes and more boxes were cluttering the basement. "How are we ever going to find it in here?" I sighed beginning to shift through boxes. Luckily, I found they were labeled.

"What are we even doing here? Someone care to explain?" Jace wondered. I ignored him, scanning the rows and rows of boxes.

"Clary! Over here!" Izzy called from the other side of the basement. I ran over to her to see that she was standing in front of a few boxes labeled 'HODGE STARKWEATHER.'

I opened the boxes and began going through the contents rapidly. Where was it?

Then, my fingers closed around something leather and I smiled pulling out the leather-bound notebook.

"What?!" I yelled as I flipped through it. The notebook was empty. Most of the pages had been torn out. The only ones left inside were blank. I sighed, dropping the notebook back into the box. "We were so close."

"I still don't understand what's going on," Jace announced.

"The report said that the only reason Hodge was attacked by vampire was because he was trying to protect a mundane family," I told him. "The family, they were raising a shadowhunter baby."

"I still don't see what this has to do with anything."

"After he was turned, he told the institute that he had known about the child for a while, he was watching over it making sure it was safe," I explained. "All the information about the child was in his notebook. When the Institute shunned him he told them the baby was dead and that was the end of the report."

"So you wanted to find information about this baby why...? It doesn't matter if the baby is dead." Jace wasn't getting it.

"Hodge wanted this notebook; that's why the deal he made with us was to get his belongings. Obviously there's something he didn't want the Institute- or anybody- to know in that notebook," I said. But it didn't matter now, there was nothing inside anyway.

"And he's dead...what if he died because of what was inside of the notebook?" Jace asked.

"Wow, why didn't I think of that?" I said sarcastically. That was the first thing I thought when I read the report.

"Clary!" Izzy exclaimed and I glanced at her. She was holding the notebook open to a ripped page.

"Wait." I grabbed the note that was still in my jeans pocket. It fit the ripped page perfectly. "The note came from this notebook. Or at least the paper."

"And probably the rune too," Jace pointed out. "Magnus did say that the rune was much older than the text. That notebook's at least 15 years old."

"So...the killer stole whatever was in the notebook and then used that ripped page to write the note," I concluded.

"It makes sense because we already know the killer's a shadowhunter," Izzy said. "They had to be one to get in here uninvited and hide the fangs in Sebastian's room anyhow, even if you don't look at the rest of the evidence."

"We need to regroup," Jace said. "We need to tell Alec and Sebastian. Maybe Magnus can do something about finding the pages if he has the notebook."

****

Sebastian complained when I pulled him out of bed at 5 in the morning but the five of us were up and in my room once again.

The report was passed around along with the empty notebook and the note.

"Magnus isn't going to want to do us another favor," Alec said.

"You already have to take Church there on a play date," Jace reminded him. "We'll just tag along and see what he says."

"He's going to want payment this time. Probably something more than a cat play date."

"Then we'll pay it. We need to know who the killer is," I said. "We only have until midnight to find out unless we want to leave it up to the vampires."

"Guys?" Sebastian questioned and we all turned to him. "If the killer came into the institute to steal the pages from the notebook...why did he just leave the notebook? Why wouldn't he take it all with him?"

It was something that hadn't crossed my mind. Simply taking the notebook would have been easier than ripping all the pages out. It's not like anyone would have noticed it was missing anyway.

"The notebooks probably a dead-end then," I sighed. "He wants us wasting our time trying to figure out where the pages are instead of looking for him."

"Then what do we do?" Izzy asked. "We don't exactly have a lot of time. Less than 24 hours."

"If only someone saw something at the party where Hodge was killed...anything could lead us to the killer," I sighed. Here we were, going back around in circles.

"Do you guys think it's time to bring our parents into the loop on this?" Alec questioned.

"No," the four of us said at the same time.

"We can do this ourselves, Alec," Izzy told her brother. "Clary, how about we go talk to Simon? He might know something."

"If you had a way to contact him that would be great," I told her.

"I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't," Izzy said. "I had Magnus give me his address last time we were over there." Leave it up to her to want that vampire's address.

I sighed. "Okay then Izzy and I can go find Simon. Alec might as well ask Magnus about the notebook when he takes Church, it can't hurt."

"I'll go back to where Miles was killed. Maybe we missed something there," Sebastian said. "And then Hodge's apartment."

"I'll come with you two," Jace said to Izzy and I. "In case you need help dealing with the blood-sucker."

"No, you're going with Alec on the off chance that the notebook does lead to something," I told him. "Izzy and I can handle Simon by ourselves."

***

My parabatai and I set out straight for Simon's, not caring about how early it was. Time was of the essence here.

Arriving at the address that Magnus had given Izzy we knocked on the door. There was no answer. Ignoring the vampire's privacy, I drew an opening rune on the door and it clicked open.

The apartment was dark inside, pitch black. I pulled out my witchlight; it illuminated the room just enough so I could see where I was going.

Izzy and I soundlessly made our way to the bedroom and quietly pushed the door open. There was a form sleeping on the bed.

I walked over to the window and peeled the curtain back just enough that a small stream of light hit Simon. The vampire was instantly awoken and he hissed, darting out of the way of the beam of light.

I set the curtain back in place and Izzy turned on the lights so we could see clearly.

"Izzy? Clary? What are you two doing here?" Simon questioned.

"We need your help," I spoke quickly before Izzy could. We didn't have time for her to flirt with the vampire.

"Oh no," Simon said. "I'm done helping the likes of you. If Camille even finds out I'm talking to you she'll make me think the punishment I received after letting you into the party was a vacation."

"Camille?"

"You met her. The blonde bitch who's in charge," Simon explained to us. It didn't seem like he liked her much either. "Now get out. I would like to not be tortured twice in the same week."

"We can't leave," Izzy spoke. "Not until you help us. I'm sure you heard but Camille gave us two days to find the killer until she takes matters into her own hands. The deadline's tonight."

"If we can't find the killer you know what will happen: an all-out war between the shadowhunters and the vampires. I'm sure neither of us want that," I said.

Simon stared at us for a moment before sighing. "I don't know what exactly you want me to help you with. It's not like I know who the killer is or anything."

"The party that you took us to," I started. "After we left the room that Javier was in did you see anything?"

"I didn't even see you two leave the room. All I heard was someone screaming that Javier was dead and then Camille was on me demanding why I let you two in," Simon explained.

"How was Javier killed?" I asked. We had never actually heard.

"Stake to the heart." Simon shrugged. "That's what I heard anyhow. I don't see why that helps you though."

"He wasn't killed the same way as Miles. A shadowhunter didn't have to kill him." The gears were turning in my head.

"Does that matter, Clary? We already know that the killer's a shadowhunter," Izzy said. She wasn't catching on. Granted, my idea was a long shot.

"We've been presuming this entire time that Miles' killer was there was the party, that they slipped into the room after we left and killed Javier," I said. "What if he wasn't there? What if a vampire killed Javier, a vampire who's working with the killer, trying to throw the rest of the vamps against us?"

"It was Camille," Simon said. "Camille found his body. She told me so when she attacked me."

"Clary, how exactly did you come to this conclusion?" Izzy asked.

"The simple fact that there wasn't enough time. How did Camille know we were shadowhunters? Our runes were covered, no weapons in sight. Just finding a dead Javier doesn't mean a shadowhunter did it, for all Camille could have known we could have been one of those crazy vampire hunting mundanes," I explained. "It should have taken her time to figure out who we were and who brought us to the party but she attacked Simon an instant later and was chasing us as soon as we left the hotel. If she's working with the killer I'm sure she knows exactly who we are and she's the one who killed Javier."

"Why would Camille do that though?" Izzy questioned. "If she knows who the killer is she's letting him kill her vampires."

"A few sacrifices mean nothing if she means to wage a war with us."

"Camille's always hated shadowhunters," Simon pointed out. "I don't put any of this past her."

"Maybe we don't have to find the killer today," I thought aloud. "Maybe we can just kill Camille instead."

"Killing her is easier said than done," Simon pointed out. "I've seen dozens try. They always end up with their head ripped off."

"Yeah well, Izzy and I aren't exactly a couple of scrawny vampires. We can take her."

"And Camille isn't just any vampire," Simon told me. "She's old, older than most. With age comes power."

"We're going to have to try," I said. "We're not getting any closer to finding the killer."

"There might be another way," Simon said. "I could go to Camille, tell her what you two told me: that she's working with the killer. Tell her I want in on the plan. And when she admits that she's actually working with him and killing fellow vampires I'll have the entire clan hear. They'll run her out of town."

"Is that actually going to work?" Izzy asked. "You don't seem like the evil type, Simon."

"I'm plenty evil, I'm a vampire after all."


	17. Chapter 17

I had wanted to go right to Camille and put the plan in action but Izzy reminded me of one fact: my mother was leaving today. I'd at least be proper and see her off. Even though I was still mad at her for lying to me, it didn't change the fact that she is my mother.

Simon said he wasn't putting the plan into action until sunset anyway. That's when the most vampires would be at Hotel Dumort to hear Camille's betrayal.

Izzy and I collected Sebastian from the crime scene; he had found nothing new. We decided to leave Alec and Jace at Magnus's loft. Magnus probably wouldn't let Alec go and I didn't want to deal with Jace but Izzy sent them a text letting them know what was going on.

Imagine my surprise when the three of us returned to the institute to see Magnus and the pair of Parabatai there as well. I had forgotten that Magnus had to create the portal back to Idris for my mother.

I couldn't help but laughing when I noticed scratch marks on Jace's arms and neck, no doubt from Church.

"Yeah, laugh it up." Jace didn't seem to be very happy about it. "That cat's psychotic."

"Church just doesn't like you," Magnus said. "You should have let me put him in the cat carrier."

"Church doesn't like anybody, Magnus," Izzy spoke up. "I'm surprised he didn't kill your cat."

"Oh on the contrary," the warlock said. "Church adores me. I'm the one who brought him to New York after all."

"Wait what?" Izzy asked.

"A story for another day, my dear," Magnus said and my mother strode into the room. She was carrying two suitcases. That's all she had brought with her from Idris. I wondered if she had been thinking about leaving the entire time.

I reluctantly made my way over to her and gave her a hug. "I love you, Clary," she said quietly. I pulled away but didn't say anything. She hugged Sebastian in the same awkward manner.

"Are you ready?" Magnus asked Jocelyn. My mother nodded and he conjured up a portal. She looked back at Sebastian and me before stepping through. In an instant she was gone. The portal closed thereafter leaving the group of us standing there.

"Hey!" A voice yelled coming into the room. "You're Magic Cane or something right?" I looked over and noticed it was one of the Ascended. I think his name was Jake.

"Magnus Bane," the warlock corrected.

"Yeah, whatever," Jake said. "If I paid you could you do a spell or something?"

Sebastian hit him on the back of the head. "Knock it off! You can't just ask the High Warlock of Brooklyn to do a spell for you."

"It's refreshing to know that you are aware of my title," Magnus noted. "But no, I will not do a spell for you. I can't have you shadowhunters monopolizing my service." He turned to look at the rest of us. "That goes for you too. It's not fair to the downworlders. Some of them already get in my hair about working with you at all." He looked at Alec. "Alexander, I am sorry."

"Magnus! Wait!" Alec followed after the warlock as he left the institute.

"Thanks a lot, Jake," Sebastian sighed.

"What did I do?"

My brother sighed. "Forget it. Come on, you were supposed to be in training like ten minutes ago. I wonder what Maryse is going to say..."

The two boys' voices trailed off as they walked down the corridor. Leaving Jace, Izzy and I.

"So when do we leave for the confrontation tonight?" Jace questioned.

"You're not going," I told him. Before he could argue I spoke again. "It's going to be hard enough for Simon to sneak Izzy and me inside Hotel Dumort. We can't have a trigger happy shadowhunter with us too."

"Trigger happy? I'm not-"

"Sure you aren't, Jace," Izzy said. "How many times have you attacked demons before Alec and I were ready?"

"We can't risk the plan because you decide to flip out and kill some vampires," I told him.

Jace crossed his arms, obviously not happy with the plan. "Then at least let Alec and I follow after Camille. If the vampires really do chase her away she'll probably run towards the killer if she's really working with him. She could lead us straight to him."

I opened my mouth to reply to him when Robert walked into the room. "Could the three of you come with me please?"

I glanced sideways at Izzy but she looked just as confused as me. What did he want? He couldn't know about what we were doing could he?

He led us into his study where there was a map of New York City across the wall. Some points on the map had a thumbtack in them.

"There's been some demonic activity reports recently that need to be dealt with," Robert explained. "Here, here and here." He pointed to three red thumbtacks on the map. "Your objective is simple: go in and kill the demons. I want this done tonight."

Tonight...we had the thing with Simon tonight. But how could we tell him that?

"I'm sure you're about to tell me that you're busy or something," Robert seemed to read our minds. "Yes, I've noticed the five of you gallivanting across the city getting in to the Angel knows what.You're teenagers, I would expect nothing less. Whatever you have been doing, I don't care, but you're shadowhunters first and foremost and it is your calling to defend the world from demons. So fighting demons is what you'll be doing tonight."

I sighed. Our plan was blown. I could only hope that Simon could handle this by himself. Izzy and I were supposed to be there in case anything went wrong. We couldn't lose Simon. He had helped us too much.

"Sebastian will take three of the Ascended and compromise the demons here." Robert pointed to the first tack. "Maryse will be taking the remaining of them here." He pointed at the second. "You three and Alec will kill the demons here." He pointed at the last. "Any questions?"

•••

"Why can't I come?" Max complained. "I wanna fight demons too."

We were taking weapon inventory on the kitchen table. Max was assisting us but he kept asking questions about the mission.

"You're too young, Max," Izzy told him counting seraph blades. "We've got six unnamed ones between the five of us. Five that have been used before."

Max opened his mouth to complain again but Sebastian stepped in. "You have to stay here with your Dad, Max. You know why?"

"Because Izzy said I'm too young."

"No, that's not it. You have to protect the institute. If something tries to break in you gotta fight it," my brother told him. "You're the most important part of this whole operation."

"Really?"

"Really." Sebastian smiled. It was a smile I hadn't seen from him in a long time. Max's face lit up.

"I gotta go find my dad! We need to go over plans to fight off the bad guys!" Max ran off through the halls of the Institute.

Izzy shook her head and laughed. "I don't know how you're so good with him."

"Yeah how come he likes you so much? Why not me?" I questioned.

"He likes you just as well as me, Clary," Sebastian tried to tell me.

"That's so not true. Remember last summer? When we had the barbecue at the manor house? He stomped on my foot and then ran away screaming for no reason," I told him. "And he's paid next to no attention to me since we arrived here."

Sebastian chuckled. "Maybe he just identifies with me more cause I'm a guy." 

Izzy's phone chimed. "That's Simon. He's at Dumort. He's setting everything up."

"Estimated time?" I asked.

"An hour? Maybe more. It's not quite dark yet, some of the vampires aren't up," she said.

I sighed setting down a couple arrows. "This better work. Otherwise these demons won't be the only thing we're fighting tonight."


	18. Chapter 18

"You're doing great, Clary," Izzy assured me. If I wasn't too busy concentrating I would have told her the opposite. "Just press gently..."

I slammed on the brakes. Or at least I hadn't meant to, the car just slowed down quicker than I had anticipated.

"Can I get out?" Jace asked from the backseat.

"No," the three of us said at once. As much as I hated to admit it we needed Jace there when we fought the demons and we couldn't wait for him to walk. We were already running late as it was.

"The light's green now, Clary, you can go," Izzy instructed me. But I couldn't moved. I was petrified. Fighting demons? Easy. Driving a car in traffic? Hard. I kept thinking the two other cars on the street were gonna swerve and hit me. "Clary-" she started to say but the car behind me honked. It terrified me so much I smashed my foot to the gas pedal.

"Clary!" Izzy yelled. "Slow down!"

"I'd like to give my seraph blade collection to Max-" I heard Jace start saying.

"What are you doing?" Alec questioned him.

"Verbalizing my will," he explained. "Chances are at least one of us will survive the car crash that's bound to happen."

"Slow down!" Izzy repeated, more urgent this time. There was a turn coming.

"Oh great Raziel please take pity on my soul..." Jace's prayer was lost when the tires started to screech. I had slammed on the brakes.

As the car stopped the engine started sparking and smoke began to rise.

"It's not the worst way to go-" Alec pulled Jace out of the car, cutting him off. Izzy and I had already gotten outside.

The car exploded.

I shielded my face as I rolled backwards, away from the blast. I was glad I was wearing gear. Any normal clothes would be gone by now.

I looked at what was left of the sad car. The frame mostly and it was still on fire.

"We should..."

"Go, yeah sounds like a plan," I finished Izzy's sentence and the four of us sprinted away from the burning car. Looking towards Alec and Jace I was glad that the older boy had had the sense to grab the weapons bag before the car exploded.

Luckily, due to my sudden burst of speed, we were already close to the abandoned building where the demons had been reported.

Slowing to a stop outside, I panted and pulled out my stele. "C'mon Izzy," I told her. Runes drawn by Parabatai were stronger than any other.

Izzy rolled up her sleeve and I began to draw runes on her. Silence. Night Vision. Endurance. Speed. I glanced at Alec and Jace, they were doing the same thing. Except for the fact that Alec was drawing on Jace's chest. I forced myself to refocus on drawing the runes on Izzy.

When I was done my Parabatai took out her stele and drew the same runes on me. We could have drawn them at the institute but the fresher they were, the better they worked.

As she finished I rolled down my sleeve. "Did your dad give any indication as to what type of demons they were?"

"Nope," Izzy said. "No one was able to pinpoint the type."

"Amazing, so we're going in blind," I sighed. I would have liked to be prepared. Glancing at the building I found it to be two stories. "Izzy and I will take the upstairs, you two can take downstairs."

"Are we really going to listen to the girl who just blew up the car?" Jace questioned. "No, you two can have downstairs. Alec and I are taking up."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

Stealthily, the four of us entered the building. Alec and Jace found the stairwell quickly and they were gone.

I glanced at Izzy. This was our first real mission together. I was going to make sure it turned out alright.

The two of us began making our way through the building room by room. At one point this place was probably a hotel or apartment complex but since then most of the walls and doors had been broken down.

I froze as something creaked behind us. I glanced at Izzy and she nodded. Slowly, we made our way towards the sound.

Behind some debris a black figure leapt out at us. Izzy was faster that me and had her whip around its neck before I even had Heosphoros unsheathed. She threw the little devil to the side as we heard cackling behind us. And I meant little devil- it was an imp demon. They looked like tiny versions of the devil, with tail and all.

"Clary..." Izzy said.

"Yup," I replied wielding my sword in front of us. From the sound of laughter there were dozens of them.

I heard a crash upstairs and an inhuman screech. It seemed that the boys had found some imps of their own upstairs.

The demons didn't give a warning before they leapt at us. I swung my blade in an arc slicing through three of them. I wished that was even a fraction of them.

Izzy had caught one in her whip and swung the imp into several others, knocking them to the side mid leap.

I noticed a shape moving towards her back. I kicked off from the ground and sliced at the figure before it even got an inch closer to my Parabatai.

"Now might be a good time to use a seraph blade," I told her. I knew how much she loved her whip but there were times when you just needed a blade in your hand instead.

"Yeah, yeah," Izzy said as she curled up her whip on her wrist and pulled out a seraph blade. She whispered it's name to it just as a demon lunged at her. My Parabatai swung out the blade slicing the imp in half.

"How many more of them do you think there are?" I asked Izzy. I was covered in sweat and demon dust. I think my shoulder was bleeding from where an imp had scratched me.

"A few dozen more perhaps." Izzy shrugged as she kicked an imp.

Suddenly there was a loud creak above us and the ceiling caved in. A large figure dropped with the ceiling debris.

"Alec!" Izzy yelled, slicing through demons as she made her way towards her brother.

"I'm okay!" I heard Alec's voice say.

I was too busy to hear the rest of their conversation as two imps lunged at me. I ducked, letting them collide with each other and then swung my sword in an arc to kill them both.

"Stay down!" A voice screamed as a dagger flew over my head. It collided with an imp lunging for me. Rising up, carefully, I turned to notice it was Jace who had thrown the dagger. He must had jumped down when Alec fell through the ceiling. "You owe me one." He smirked. I don't know how Jace had time to be a sarcastic ass during a demon fight.

I glared at him. I didn't want to owe Jace Herondale anything. But I didn't have time to argue with him. We still had dozens of demons to fight.

The demons kept coming at us. We kept attacking and killing. By night's end I was coated in a layer of blood, sweat and dust. I was exhausted but we had won. All the demons had been killed. 

We escaped with only handful of minor injuries. My shoulder had long since clotted. Alec was limping from his fall through the ceiling. Izzy's hand was bleeding from claw marks. Jace was perfectly fine as far as I could tell. Damn him.

Walking outside the building I remembered that the car had blown up. We had no way of getting home but to walk. Alec was the only one who had brought his phone and he had broken it during he fall.

"Clary!" Izzy suddenly screeched. Before I could comprehend what was happening sharp nails held me by the shoulders.

"It's all your fault!" I heard Camille's voice hiss. Something sharp punctured my neck and I could feel the blood draining out of me.

I thought I heard Jace shouting at Camille but I was losing consciousness, so I wasn't sure what was real and what was not.

The pressure was suddenly released from my neck. I tried to catch myself while I fell but my limbs were too weak.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. I heard a whisper of my name before everything went black.


	19. Chapter 19

When I opened my eyes I found that I was in the infirmary. I knew because of the arched ceilings with magnificent murals before my eyes. I had been enthralled by them when Izzy had first shown me around.

"Clary!" A voice yelled and I grunted as the full force of my Parabatai landed on top of me.

"Can't breathe," I gasped. She released me and apologized. "What happened?" I asked. All I remembered was fighting the imp demons and then...

"Camille showed up as we left the building. She bit you. Clary, she took so much blood from you I thought you were dead," Izzy explained. I remembered now. Vampire fangs hurt.

I gripped Izzy's hand. "I wouldn't die that easily. I told you I'm not going to die and I intent to keep my word."

Izzy smiled. "Oh! But Simon! The plan worked. Camille admitted to be working with the killer. The vampires chased her away. Raphael and Simon are in charge now."

I had figured that by how mad Camille had seemed during our confrontation. I glanced around the infirmary to find that Izzy and I were the only ones. Had no one else really not gotten hurt during the missions?

"How long was I out?" I asked Izzy. She pursed her lips. "Izzy."

"Three days," she finally said. Did I hear her right? How had I been out for three whole days? "You lost a lot of blood," she seemed to read my mind. "Your shoulder wound was deep and had been bleeding the entire time. And Camille nearly took everything else that was left."

I sighed. Three whole days gone. I had a million questions to ask her, but I settled on just one: "How did the other missions go?"

"Good, fine," Izzy said. "A few injuries of course but no one died or anything."

I sensed that she was holding something back. "Izzy," I said.

"I'm not supposed to tell you until you're at full strength-"

"Izzy!"

"Sebastian's missing," she blurted out. What?

I stared at her. "What do you mean missing?"

"I mean exactly what I said. He returned from the mission fine and everything but the next morning he was no where to be found," Izzy explained. "He hasn't came back since and no one can find him."

I had been wondering why Sebastian wasn't at my bedside waiting for me to wake up. "That doesn't...that doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't just leave."

"I don't know, Clary," Izzy sighed. "When he returned from the mission...he wasn't himself. I-I thought it was because you were out cold and he was worried but now I don't know."

Whatever Izzy said I knew my brother. He wouldn't just up and leave for no reason.

"That's not it." By the Angel there was more? "The car, you didn't cause it to blow up." Well, that was a relief. "There was evidence of a bomb in the wreckage."

"A bomb? But who would-" Izzy's look caused me to stop talking. "No, Izzy, no."

"We've discussed this-"

"We've discussed pretending that he was the killer! Not that he actually was or had anything to do with the killer!" I yelled. I wouldn't let anybody believe that Sebastian had anything to do with this. He wouldn't.

"Clary, my parents think-"

"You brought your parents into this? What happened to us not telling them? We were handling things fine on our own." I was mad. First Izzy suspects Sebastian of putting the bomb in the car and now she told her parents everything when we agreed not to?

"We had to! They needed a justified reason why the former leader of the vampires nearly killed you! And when Sebastian went missing...it only made sense to tell them everything."

I kicked the blankets off and prepare to get out of the bed. Izzy stopped me. "Izzy! Let me go! None of you seem to believe in Sebastian's innocence so I'm going to have to prove it!"

"Clary! I'm sorry but the facts add up! Why else was he acting shady after the car explosion? Why would he just disappear like he did?"

"Sebastian would never work with someone who killed our father!" I shouted and pushed past her out of the bed. "Did you ever think maybe he was acting off because he had just gotten back from his first real mission? That he was scared to death that I was going to die?"

"Clary, could you just calm down? I can hear you across the Institute, shouting like that," Jace said from the doorway.

I looked at him with blind rage. "And you! I bet you were the first one to accuse Sebastian! God! I can't believe you." I looked at Izzy. "I can't believe any of you!"

"I haven't accused him of anything!" Jace raised his voice. "I've been out there day and night searching for him trying to prove what I knew you would think: that he's innocent."

I was dumbfounded. Jace had been trying to find Sebastian? He hadn't jumped to the conclusion that he was or had anything to do with the killer?

"Clary, if you would've just calmed down I would have explained," Izzy said softly. "None of us want to believe that Sebastian is anything more than he seems. Alec's been begging Magnus to do locator spell after locator spell for him. Jace has been searching for him. Hell, even Simon has been looking." Izzy's contribution went without saying. I knew she had been by my bedside for the past three days.

"I-I'm sorry," I said. It had been easy to believe they wouldn't think Sebastian was innocent. I couldn't believe even Jace was trying to prove he wasn't involved.

Jace looked at me for a moment before turning and walking off down the hallway. For once I think I had hurt his feelings.

Izzy laughed slightly. "He looked like a wounded puppy."

"I didn't mean to," I told her. "It was easy to jump to the conclusion that he would be the first to think Sebastian wasn't innocent."

"Yeah, well, Jace will do anything for those he cares about," Izzy told me. "Even if it means going against all his instincts to prove that someone's brother isn't what they seem to be."

"I should go talk to him. I didn't know-"

"You should get changed first," Izzy interrupted me. I realized I was wearing a hospital gown. "And then I'll tell you where he went because I think I know."

•••

"Jace?" I called as I stepped into the room. I was hit with the strong scent of flowers and plants. It made sense, I was in the greenhouse.

Hearing no response I ventured further inside in awe of all the flowers around. I hadn't seen most of these since Idris.

"Clary." I whirled my head and noticed Jace sitting on a bench in the middle of the greenhouse. He had a book on the bench next to him: 'A Tale of Two Cities.' It looked like an old copy. "What are you doing here?"

"Izzy told me where to find you," I told him. "I wanted to apologize...again."

"No, it's fine," he said. "I had no right to believe that you wouldn't think straight away that I wanted to accuse Sebastian. I haven't exactly been friendly."

I stared at him. He seemed...different. I didn't know if I liked it or not.

I decided to change the subject. "I never even knew this place was here. Izzy didn't show me when she gave me the tour."

"Izzy and Alec don't like it much up here," Jace told me. "They don't get the awe of it."

"But you do?"

"It reminds me of home." I could relate with him there. It smelled like Idris in here. "My personal favorite..." He nodded towards a particular flower.

I laughed slightly. I knew that one. "Midnight flowers," I said. When Sebastian and I were younger we would sneak out of bed to the meadow to watch them bloom at midnight.

"It's almost..." The flower suddenly started to bloom.

"...Midnight," I finished Jace's sentence.

He grinned at me and for the moment I forgot about all the crap going on in my life. I forgot my mom was a liar, I forgot that there was a killer hellbent on dispatching my brother and I, I forgot Sebastian was missing. I got lost in Jace's golden eyes.

It was when Jace kissed me that my brain stopped functioning all together. I felt his hand slink around my waist, drawing me closer to him. My hands were in his hair, feeling it soft and silky.

Suddenly someone cleared their throat behind us. I tore myself away from Jace and turned to see who it was.

It was Alec. "There's something you both need to see."

**Author's Note:**

> Some things you should know about this story: 
> 
> -Isabelle and Clary are parabatai (obviously) and so are Alec and Jace 
> 
> -The Circle isn't evil in this story. They just wanted to create more Shadowhunters to fight the demons (the Circle's original goal). Valentine was the one training newly made shadowhunters in Idris. 
> 
> -Jace's circumstances are the same: his parents died and he was sent to live with the Lightwoods. 
> 
> -Izzy and Clary became parabatai because Maryse typically brought Izzy to Idris with her when conducting business with Valentine and left Izzy to play with Clary at the Morgenstern Manor. 
> 
> -I decided to name Sebastian, well Sebastian instead of Jonathan Christopher because that's Jace's name and I thought it would be too confusing having two Jonathan Christophers. 
> 
> -Jace's treatment of Clary? Clary isn't some mystery in this story to figure out. She's just a shadowhunter. He's treating her like he would treat anyone. 
> 
> -Character's OOC? This is an AU. They've grown up differently, they have slightly different personalities.


End file.
